Welcome to the April edition of Neudata Tidbits for Data Providers

This month, we discuss Apple’s release of iOS 14.5, a new study on how hedge funds are buying alternative data, and an update on the web-scraping landscape.

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FUNDS BUY MORE ALT DATA
A study released in April from the Alternative Investment Management Association showed that hedge fund managers are accelerating their usage of alternative data and machine learning/AI, regardless of size and strategy, but particularly among firms with AUM over $1bn.

This is good news for data vendors, as more buy-side firms are embedding alternative data into their investment decision-making process. In particular, ESG data has seen a boom in interest, with ~60% of firms claiming they have used ESG factors to identify sustainability risk.

You can download a copy of the report from AIMA here.

HIQ AND THE WEB-SCRAPING LANDSCAPE
While the Supreme Court has stayed silent on its plans to retry LinkedIn v. hiQ Labs, lower courts are making decisions that will impact the future of web-scraping. Due to a favourable ruling in hiQ for scrapers, a small number of data vendors continue to source employee profile data from LinkedIn. However, the permanency risk of these datasets remains unclear while the appeal sits in limbo.

Kelly Koscuiszka at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP explains more in a contributed article that was published to Neudata News this month.

APPLE’S PRIVACY PLAY
On Monday, Apple released iOS 14.5, which includes a new privacy tool that gives users more control over how they share their data with apps. With Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency framework, users will be informed that their data is being used for purposes other than app functionality, and they can choose to opt-out of data collection. This function will directly impact the stability and size of panels for data companies that are currently collecting location, app, clickstream and weather data via iOS.

At the same time, major browsers have announced they will phase out support for third-party cookies. A few location and app data vendors have already shifted towards a cookie-less technology. If you are in the process of phasing out cookies, please reach out to us – our buy-side users are interested to hear about any developments in this space.

NEUDATA SCOOPS
Neudata has a new feature for buy-side users where we highlight datasets with a special lozenge when we are the first third-party platform in the investment management space to be told. If you have a new dataset coming to market and you want to give our buy-side users an advanced heads-up, let us know.

PEOPLE MOVES
Make sure you check out our people moves section, which recaps the latest job moves in the alternative data industry. If you want us to recap your new job or latest promotion, get in touch with Sondra at sondra@neudata.co.

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29 April: Vatic, Kantar, Toluna and more

22 April: RS Metrics, Kpler, BMLL and more

15 April: Apptopia, IHS Markit, Nexar and more

8 April: InsiderScore, GlobalData, Comscore and more

1 April: AllianzGI, Macrobond and more

Until next time,

Saima & Sondra