Today in Digital Marketing - Twitter Quietly Locks Out Third-Party Apps

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, January 13th. Today, Google's plans for replacing the third-party cookie hit yet another roadblock. Twitter appears to be locking out dozens of apps. TikTok's privacy banners aren't enough for France. More brands move to Mastodon. And finally, a hint of good economic news for retailers. I'm Todd Mathen. Here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing. There has been yet another setback in Google's plan to kill off third-party cookies. A key web

Starting point is 00:00:30 standards group known as the W3C has rejected Google's Topics API proposal, saying it has privacy issues. The Topics API is one of Google's latest privacy-focused replacements for third-party cookies, which lets advertisers target ads to website visitors based on broad topics like fitness or books, based on their browsing history on a given site over a three-week period. But now, Google may have to rethink its strategy. Yesterday, W3C asked Google to not go ahead with the Topics API in its current form. In a GitHub post, a member of W3C's technical architecture group wrote, quote, the proposed API appears to maintain the status quo of inappropriate surveillance on the web,

Starting point is 00:01:14 and we do not want to see it proceed further, unquote. In response, a Google spokesperson said that while the company appreciated the input, it disagreed with the characterization that Topics maintains the status quo. Quote, Google is committed to Topics as it is a significant privacy improvement over third-party cookies and we're moving forward, unquote. Business Insider noted today that it is still possible for Google to follow its own path, despite the rebuke from W3C, given that web standards can take years to thrash out, and Google is not bound by them. The W3C has not yet responded to a request for comment. Has Elon Musk axed third-party Twitter apps? Several third-party Twitter applications are not working right now and haven't been since last night, including some of the big ones like TweetBot, Twitterific, and EchoFon.

Starting point is 00:02:10 All three apps have confirmed the issues and noted that they are not sure what's triggered the glitch. Developers also noted they haven't heard back from the company about what's going on. The developers behind TweetBot said the connection issues started around 10.30 last night and noted that all API requests from their app were failing. Meanwhile, Twitter's developers forum shows numerous app developers noting that their apps have been listed as suspended or showing invalid authentication credentials. Echophone this morning tweeted it was working to resolve its issues, but that Twitter, quote, has not yet replied, unquote. It is worth noting that not all third-party clients appear to be broken. Some apps like Tweetin appear to be working.

Starting point is 00:02:54 TweetDeck seems to be working, though that is owned by Twitter. As of right now, the company has not released any sort of statement regarding the matter. So while Twitter continues to self-destruct, Mastodon keeps gaining steam. The social publishing site Medium, which, by the way, was originally created by the co-founder of Twitter,

Starting point is 00:03:16 Evan Williams, has launched a Mastodon instance at me.dm. Get it? Me-D-M. To serve as a dedicated space for its users. Basically it will be an exclusive social networking platform for users of Medium. The company said it will open up Mastodon

Starting point is 00:03:32 to its writers and readers as an additional service within its membership. The company also said it's working on a sign up with Medium option that will make it easier to get started on Mastodon and to find people and topics that match your interests. Medium noted a select group of authors and publications will be invited to be early testers today before inviting all users in the near future. By the way, we are on Mastodon as well.

Starting point is 00:03:53 You can follow the show and newsletter at todayindigitalatmas.to. And my personal account is todathci.social. You can also tap the link in the show notes. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Here is your warning to not ignore that memo from your compliance people about your cookie consent banner. France just slapped TikTok with more than $5 million in fines for breaking rules on cookie consent. According to the French data protection regulator, TikTok was fined for two issues. First, not offering a refuse all button. The regulator said that while the platform's cookie banner offered a single click option for users to accept all cookies, there was no single-click option to refuse them. The committee found that making the refusal mechanism more complex

Starting point is 00:05:08 discouraged users from refusing cookies and encouraged them to prefer the ease of the Accept All button. They concluded that this process infringed the freedom of consent of Internet users and constituted a violation of the French Data Protection Act. Number two, users were not sufficiently informed about the purpose of cookies, neither in the first level information banner, nor in the choice interface accessible

Starting point is 00:05:32 after clicking a link. In response, a spokesperson for TikTok said, these findings relate to recent changes it made last year, including making it easier for users to reject non-essential cookies and providing more information about certain cookies. They added that user privacy remains a top priority for TikTok. The inflation clouds may be parting. According to a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor

Starting point is 00:05:57 and Statistics, inflation in the U.S. eased in December, giving retailers some hope. Inflation dropped to 6.5% in December. It was the smallest increase in more than a year. Excluding food and energy, inflation was less than 6%. Retail Dive noted that the news was welcome for retailers, of course, who have seen consumers become more frugal with discretionary purchases. The results, though, indicate a 14% rise compared to 2020. Global Data found those numbers and also discovered that in December, the majority of consumers bought fewer non-food items due to squeezed budgets.

Starting point is 00:06:31 The report said the number of consumers looking for bargains and cheaper alternatives rose sharply. So depending on the podcast player you use and how observant you are, I guess, you may notice that we are starting to put different episode images in. So every episode and newsletter issue, for that matter, has got a unique image. They're coming out of Stable Diffusion 2.1. Really cool to play with that technology, I'm telling you. We're almost at 1,000 members in our Slack now, all sharing advice, getting help.

Starting point is 00:07:05 There's even a channel you can promote yourself in. It is free to join. Just tap the link in the show notes or open up a web browser and go to todayindigital.com slash Slack. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Tsunamic First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is Steph Gunn. Production coordination by Sarah Guild. Music licensing by Source Audio. Ad coordination by Red Circle.

Starting point is 00:07:35 And our theme composer, Mark Blevis, might be one of the world's leading anthropologists, but he is terrible at directions. Tried to get to his new house for lunch the other day. No Google Maps, no nothing, just a scrap of paper. It says if you see a faded sign at the side of the road, it says 15 miles to the Love Shack. I'm Todd Maffin. Have a restful weekend, friends. I'll see you on Monday.

Starting point is 00:08:00 I saw you were in a halo All dressed up with everywhere to go You looked in my direction day. I never thought that I'd be waiting on your attention.

Today in Digital Marketing - Twitter Quietly Locks Out Third-Party Apps

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