Yahoo, Microsoft & AOL Agree to Give Our Data to Ad Giant Omnicom

The growth of data targeting of consumers & citizens across nearly all major platforms and services continues.  Last month, Omnicom (the second largest ad holding company) announced "data alliances" to "enhance targeting" with Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo.  Consumers and citizens likely don't know--let alone control--how their data will be used on behalf of Omnicom's many clients, including McDonald's, Johnson & Johnson, ExxonMobile, Sony, etc. 

Microsoft's data deal includes building a "catalog of consumer segments" for cross-platform targeting.  "Moms, millenials and teens" are among the groups whose data will be part of the new deal.  Microsoft will also help Omnicom improve its "storytelling" via mobile, PC and other digital devices.   AOL (read HuffPost) will help Omnicom better identify and target digital users, also across platform.  

Meanwhile, our `break our agreement to only hold your data the shortest time' Yahoo promised to give access to their Web Analytic information as part of a "data exchange."  They also promised to help Omnicom better "understand how consumers engage with digital media."  

Omnicom has expanded its investments in data targeting, including via its Annalect Group subsidiary.  Annalect is designed to "align and leverage consumer and media data from the Group's $2 billion in digital investments to deliver a higher level of consumer insight...[and] brings together more than 400 global data, digital and analytic experts from across several Omnicom Media Group specialty divisions -- including Media Analytics, Business Intelligence, Tools and Dashboard Systems, Econometric Modeling (Brand Science), Search (Resolution Media) and its DSP trading platform (Accuen) - to create a new, strategically focused, data-informed marketing platform and analytics offering. The group is building the future infrastructure of the agency."

The move by major online marketing companies and ad agencies to use our information to profile and target us across platforms illustrates why we need public policy safeguards on both privacy and for sensitive consumer transactions (health, finance, etc.).