Meanwhile, privacy organizations are pushing back on Meta’s plan to target ads to Facebook and Instagram users based on their conversations with chatbots. “This unprecedented use of deeply sensitive data presents outsized risks to consumer data privacy and security,” the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Center for Digital Democracy and others said in a letter sent to FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson. “Meta’s plan to repurpose conversational AI data for advertising illustrates the dangers of regulatory inaction: absent intervention, the practice will normalize a level of surveillance that is qualitatively more intrusive than traditional behavioral tracking.” The letter comes after Meta said that starting December 16, it will harness chatbot data for ad targeting, and will not allow users to opt out.

Bluesky which announced on Friday it has surpassed 40 million users, is testing a “dislikes” button. The feature is intended as a personalization tool – a “dislike” won’t be visible to the public, but teach the system to show users less of that kind of content. Bluesky is also testing digital communities it calls “social neighborhoods,” along with conversation control tools it says will enable more “fun, genuine, and respectful exchanges.”

DirecTV Hospitality and Google TV reached an agreement to bring a personalized streaming experience to hotels across the country, integrating Google TV’s business-to-business version of the Android TV operating system into DirecTV’s Advanced Entertainment Platform. Full deployment is scheduled for 2026.

Younger gamers spend more screen time gaming than TV & movie viewing, according to Hub Entertainment Research’s new report, “Gaming 360.” On average, gamers 16-24 spend 32% of their weekly screen time on gaming, compared to 19% watching TV and movies. Gaming trails only social media time (40% of weekly screen time) for these gamers. Gaming with friends is the top preferred content when young people get together, with 34% of young gamers choosing gaming versus watching movies (23%) or TV (20%) or about twice as high as people aged 35+. Younger people also discover new movies, music and brands through games like “Fortnite,” according to the report, with 55% of gamers playing titles based on film, TV, comic or toy IP, and 62% interested in watching shows or films adapted from games. “These trends on gaming are less about games stealing time from TV viewing, and more about how gaming has changed expectations for how consumers, especially younger ones, prefer to interact with entertainment,” said Jason Platt Zolov, Senior Consultant at Hub and study author.

LG Ad Solutions introduced Agentiv, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform developed to support the company’s suite of internal and external agents. Agentiv is part of LG Ad Solutions’ broader efforts to incorporate AI tools into its advertising technology framework to improve workflow automation, collaboration and data accessibility. More than 20 intelligent agents operate within Agentiv, supporting various operational workflows. LG Ad Solutions intends to begin limited beta testing of Agentiv with select advertisers.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released an industry guide — “The Role of CAPI in Closing the Outcome Gap for CTV” — that it says defines how Conversion APIs (CAPI) can unlock the potential of Connected TV (CTV). Designed for brands, agencies, publishers and ad tech partners, the report explores how CAPIs can standardize measurement, enable privacy-safe data collaboration and help the CTV ecosystem deliver performance outcomes like channels such as search and social. According to a survey conducted by IAB, 75% of advertisers using a CAPI are willing to reallocate budgets based on conversion performance, and 72% of publishers cite technical complexity as a barrier to adoption. “With this guide, we invite the industry to move forward together. By offering a practical road map grounded in data and cross-industry input, IAB aims to accelerate scalable CAPI adoption — ensuring that CTV can meet rising demand for performance, accountability, and trust,” said Jamie Finstein, Vice President, Media Center, IAB.

OpenX Technologies, Inc., and Attain have partnered to deliver verified, sales-based outcomes to the programmatic ecosystem. According to OpenX, by leveraging OpenXSelect and Attain’s real-time purchase data and insights, a recent OMD campaign achieved a 14.32% conversion rate, far surpassing industry benchmarks.

New research from Hightouch reveals that even though marketers most often cite tools as their top pain point, 75% of the time the reason is disconnected data. In its new report, “Has Martech Failed Marketers?,” Hightouch analyzed 384 conversations with marketing leaders and uncovered a disconnect between ambition and execution. Even as AI dominates industry discussions, most teams say they cannot fully activate their tech stack or personalize experiences the way they want to. “Marketers are realizing that AI cannot be effective when bad data is its context,” said Tejas Manohar, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Hightouch. “The next wave of marketing innovation is not about adding more software; it is about activating the data foundation that makes AI actually work.”

ITN and Magnite announced the launch of the LocalLinear TV Private Marketplace, allowing buyers to replicate digital-like workflows seamlessly. Local linear TV inventory is available through Magnite’s ClearLine platform, where buyers can discover, package, and activate video ad campaigns. Within Magnite’s ClearLine solution, buyers can now access local linear TV and digital video programmatically in one place. “We’ve moved well beyond where previous programmatic linear efforts have stalled,” said Todd Watson, CEO of ITN. “This launch delivers the ease, visibility, and automation that will define the future of linear TV. The difference now is that activating it is just as simple as buying digital.”

AdRoll announced a new integration with HUMAN Security to combine real-time ad fraud defense with transparent viewability metrics. The partnership integrates HUMAN’s MediaGuard (pre-bid fraud detection) and FraudSensor (post-bid validation), creating a closed feedback loop that filters invalid traffic in under 12 milliseconds. It also introduces HUMAN’s new Viewability solution, which feeds transparent, log-level data into AdRoll’s BidIQ machine learning model for smarter bidding and cleaner inventory.

StackAdapt said it has made a major enhancement to its digital out-of-home solution, introducing a map-first user interface and a unified workflow that streamlines campaign planning, activation and reporting.