TechCrunch Summary (2023-05-18 05AM)

Source: Retail media targeting on the AI maturity curve

Summary
Retailers need clean data to harness data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to gain a competitive advantage. Following the “Data & AI Maturity Curve,” retailers can make incremental steps towards predictive analysis targeting to deliver finely tuned, personalized experiences.

Fact

👨‍💼 Retailers need a full view of clean and accepted data across all customer interactions and media placements, physical or digital, to create an opportunity, manage yield and measure campaign performance

🔍 Contextual targeting is the first level of true media targeting capability, where data forecasts the inventory of placements to optimize yield, manage the media network, and enhance message relevance and brand safety.

📈 Retailers need to aim for predictive analysis targeting to anticipate customer needs, deliver personal and precise experiences that provide a competitive advantage in the retail sector.

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Source: Percent lands $30M investment to connect investors with private credit

Summary
Percent has closed an oversubscribed $30m Series B funding round, led by White Star Capital, with participation from Susquehanna International Group, B Capital and others. The firm’s SaaS solution allows investors to find and compare private credit deals, promising high returns and resilience to recessions and inflation.

Fact

💻 Percent’s software solution offers sourcing, structuring, syndication, surveillance and servicing of private credit transactions.

💰 Private credit is expected to grow to $2.3 trillion in 2027.

📈 Percent is projecting a 2.5x increase in top-line revenue and a 3x increase in annual recurring revenue in 2023.

👥 Percent serves several dozen borrower and underwriter clients and thousands of investors across retail accredited, family offices and credit funds.

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Source: FTC says popular fertility tracking app Premom shared sensitive data with Chinese analytics firms

Summary
The FTC has filed a complaint against fertility tracking app, Premom, for sharing identifiable health and location data of its users with third-party advertisers, including two China-based mobile analytics companies. The company had shared data since 2018, violating its own privacy policies and the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule, and compromising the privacy of “hundreds of thousands” of users.

Fact

📱 Premom, a fertility tracking app developed by Easy Healthcare, has been accused of sharing identifiable health and location data of its users with third-party advertisers – marketing firm AppsFlyer and analytics companies Jiguang and Umeng – violating its own privacy policies and the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule.

👩‍⚕️ The data collected and shared by the app included sensitive details about users’ sexual and reproductive health, parental and pregnancy status, as well as other information about an individual’s physical health conditions and status.

🌍 The app also shared users’ location data along with unique advertising and device identifiers, allowing other advertisers to track users across the internet and other apps.

💰 As part of a settlement filed by the US Department of Justice, Easy Healthcare has agreed to pay a $100,000 civil penalty for violating the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule, as well as $100,000 to the states of Connecticut and Oregon, and the District of Columbia, and has agreed to stop sharing personal health data with third parties for advertising.

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