Happy New Year! Sure. The ball has dropped in Times Square, and a new year means an opportunity to look forward. But, we wanted to take a quick look back first -- on the industry, on the podcast, and on the world in general. From GDPR to Bayesian statistics to machine learning and AI to... podcast (and #mattgershoffed) stickers, 2018 was, clearly, the Year of the Analyst. So keep analyzing! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

For this mini-episode, Tim sits down (virtually) with Episode #077 guest Jodi Daniels from Red Clover Advisors to chat about the world of privacy post-May 25, 2018 (GDPR), as well as the upcoming California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA). Has the free-wheeling world of free-flowing consumer data ended, or are companies simply learning how to behave with more care? Give it a listen to find out?

Put this in your pipe and smoke it: all of the tracking we try to do of people is actually technology designed to track content. And, even that tracking of content was a hacked-together repurposing of a system designed to deliver content. In other words, we've got layers of fiction upon fiction that we're trying to muddle through (and, often, ignore) as an industry. The result? A ridiculous level of inefficiency whereby brands overspend to ineffectively reach their target audiences with direct response messages, and well-intended intermediaries grow their bank accounts. Ugh! On this episode, the gang invited Sergio Maldonado from PrivacyCloud (and, by day, from Sweetspot Intelligence) to chat about the broken environment we're operating in, as well as how GDPR and financial considerations may just force us onto a path of shaking it up! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Moe sat down for a chat with privacy and GDPR expert Aurélie Pols to dive in to some of the questions that, at times, get treated as peripheral in the run-up to new regulations, but that seem like they are fairly fundamental when it comes to understanding the rationale and drivers behind those regulations: what does the Holocaust have to do with GDPR? Is GDPR something that was simply dreamed up in Europe, or are there roots in other countries (teaser: Eleanor Roosevelt). Is GDPR inherently anti-business? It's a quick chat but, hopefully, will give you some deeper perspective on the subject!

For the second year in a row for the podcast -- but the first appearance since Moe joined the crew -- we headed to the Hunguest Grandhotel Galya outside Budapest for Superweek, one of the most unique conference experiences in the digital analytics industry: comfortably isolated over an hour outside of Budapest in a beautiful setting, it's a temporary community of, for, and by the analyst. With sessions ranging from GDPR to machine learning to attribution to media analytics, the spaces before, between, and after the presentations were extended discussions with great people on a wide range of topics. The "fireside chat" on Wednesday evening was a recording of the podcast with a live audience, where we had attendees to share tips and ideas that we found particularly intriguing. And had quite a bit of fun along the way. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.

Are you a data subject? If you're a person, then you better believe you are! And, so is every person who visits your website. And, if you are in the EU, or you have visitors from the EU, then May 25th, 2018, is a day you should be keeping a close eye on and preparing for now! On this episode, Jodi Daniels of Red Clover Advisors joins Moe and Tim to talk all things General Data Privacy Regulation (aka, GDPR). Give it a listen and pick up delightful cocktail party openers like, "Hey, do you know how to tell someone isn't from the EU? They reference PII." That's not just a delightful witticism -- it's actually important to understand the distinction between PII and personal data! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.