What you need to know in advertising today
Disney is asking for pitches from Google and other ad-tech companies to potentially take over its video advertising infrastructure and replace FreeWheel, the incumbent tech firm owned by Comcast, people familiar with the matter said.
To read more about the move and how it could help Google further get its hooks into the TV ad business, click here.
In other news:
Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has broken her silence on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, admitting to having made "mistakes." Sandberg told The Financial Times that Facebook still didn't know how much user data Cambridge Analytica currently holds.
Sandberg also said that 'a few' advertisers have paused spending, reported Bloomberg. She added that the company was having "reassuring conversations with advertisers" about Facebook's moves to amp up privacy.
Developers reliant on Instagram's API said they had no notice that Facebook would restrict their access on Wednesday night. App makers only found out Facebook was choking off access when they began receiving error messages.
Furious Amazon customers have said they are locked out of their accounts, without any explanation why. Hundreds of customers said they couldn't access their accounts over the last week.
The chairman of Google's parent company says that if internet companies don't get their act together, 'bad things will occur.' Facebook's problems, and the attention that Congress is paying to Google and Twitter, "is a series of wake up calls for the industry to pay attention," he said.
The Media Rating Council has accredited Facebook and Instagram, Ad Age reports. Facebook also plans to schedule its audit for whether it meets the MRC's ad fraud detection guidelines around sophisticated invalid traffic.
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