Season 7, Episode 32: The CAPI revolution

<p>The Conversions API, or CAPI, represents a revolutionary development in the digital economy: it allows any platform with sufficient scale to extend its advertising scope beyond local context into the broader and more commercially valuable function of behavioral advertising, entirely outside of the purview of a browser or operating system. In this episode, I provide a history of the CAPI and its role in the <em>Everything is an ad network</em> phenomenon. I also explore the fundamental shift in the digital advertising landscape driven by the transition from browser-side pixels to the server-to-server CAPI, moving beyond the immediate impacts of Apple&#39;s App Tracking Transparency to a more permanent structural change in how commercial data is shared and utilized.</p><p>Articles cited in this episode:</p><ul><li><a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/everything-is-an-ad-network/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Everything is an ad network</a></li><li><a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/the-att-recession/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">The App Tracking Transparency recession</a></li><li><a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/is-the-capi-attribution-model-future-proof/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Is CAPI future-proof?</a></li><li><em><strong>The privacy shuffle</strong></em> (part <a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/the-privacy-shuffle/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">one</a>, <a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/the-privacy-shuffle-part-2/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">two</a>, <a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/the-privacy-shuffle-part-3-meta-resurrects-amm/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">three</a>, <a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/the-privacy-shuffle-part-4-google-shutters-privacy-sandbox/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">four</a>)</li><li><a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/privacy-manifests-fingerprinting-and-apples-intentions/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer"><em><strong>Privacy manifests, fingerprinting, and Apple’s intentions</strong></em></a></li><li><a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/podcast-metas-renaissance/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Podcast: Meta’s Renaissance</a></li><li><a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/does-apple-police-fingerprinting/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer"><em><strong>Does Apple police fingerprinting?</strong></em></a></li><li><a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/google-embraces-ip-