Oracle Data Cloud was Oracle's consumer-data marketplace and advertising-data business, assembled through acquisitions including BlueKai (announced February 2014), Datalogix (December 2014), AddThis (January 2016), Crosswise (April 2016), and Moat (2017). Oracle's own pages described it as operating the world's largest third-party data marketplace, aggregating more than 3 billion consumer profiles from over 15 million websites and linking online, offline, and cross-device activity through its ID Graph. Its privacy policy stated that personal information sourced from advertising agencies, website operators, retail stores, and data providers was sold or shared with advertising customers and partners. In 2020, a security researcher found an unsecured BlueKai server exposing billions of records. In 2024, Oracle agreed to a $115 million class-action settlement (Katz-Lacabe/Ryan v. Oracle) over alleged unauthorized 'digital dossiers'; Oracle denied wrongdoing and agreed to limits on collecting user-generated data from non-Oracle websites. Oracle announced its exit from the advertising business in 2024, and the service's privacy options ended September 30, 2024. This dossier is a historic record of a wound-down service.
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Receipted federal filings: FEC campaign-finance records and LDA lobbying disclosures. A tie is a disclosed transaction or filing, not a claim of influence or wrongdoing.
ORACLE CORPORATION reported lobbying activity before the Senate on CPI-coded issues, where the official serves on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, per LDA Form LD-2.
ORACLE CORPORATION reported lobbying activity before the Senate on CPI-coded issues, where the official serves on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, per LDA Form LD-2.
ORACLE CORPORATION reported lobbying activity before the Senate on CPI-coded issues, where the official serves on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, per LDA Form LD-2.
ORACLE CORPORATION reported lobbying activity before the Senate on CPI-coded issues, where the official serves on the Senate Committee on Appropriations, per LDA Form LD-2.
Oracle's own acquisition page for BlueKai (announced February 24, 2014) stated that BlueKai ran the world's largest third-party data marketplace, holding actionable information on more than 700 million consumer profiles.
The FTC's 2014 data broker report, which ordered nine brokers to disclose their practices, described Datalogix — later the core of Oracle Data Cloud — as holding marketing data on almost every U.S. household and more than one trillion dollars in consumer transactions.
Through the Datalogix acquisition (announced December 22, 2014), Oracle Data Cloud incorporated offline purchasing data; Oracle's page said Datalogix aggregated insights on over $2 trillion in consumer spending for purchase-based ad targeting.
The Oracle Advertising Privacy Policy named the legal entities responsible for processing — Oracle Corporation and Oracle America, Inc. — and provided consumer rights including opt-out of third-party sharing or selling, giving the service clearer accountability than many data brokers.
Oracle Data Cloud was operated by Oracle Corporation, a Delaware corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ORCL), whose ownership and finances are disclosed in audited SEC filings such as its fiscal 2024 Form 10-K.
Data provenance was opaque to the people profiled: as Reuters reported, the class-action plaintiffs otherwise had no connection to Oracle, and the alleged 'digital dossiers' covered hundreds of millions of people who never dealt with the company directly.
Oracle marketed Data Cloud audience segments as broadly distributable across the ad ecosystem, stating that Oracle Audiences could be activated nearly anywhere consumers engage with digital media.
Plaintiffs in the 2022 U.S. class action, including ICCL Senior Fellow Dr Johnny Ryan, alleged that Oracle coordinated a global trade in dossiers about people through the Oracle Data Marketplace; these characterizations are litigation allegations that Oracle disputed.
The Oracle Advertising Privacy Policy (last updated April 10, 2024) stated that consumer personal information was shared throughout Oracle's organization and sold or shared to third parties, including Oracle Advertising customers, partners, and service providers.
In June 2020, a security researcher found BlueKai web-tracking data spilling onto the open internet from a server left unsecured without a password, exposing billions of records; TechCrunch reviewed data including names, home addresses, emails, and browsing activity. Oracle said two companies had not properly configured their services.
In July 2024, Oracle agreed to pay $115 million to settle the Katz-Lacabe/Ryan class action alleging it created unauthorized 'digital dossiers'; Oracle denied wrongdoing, and the settlement included restrictions on gathering user-generated data from non-Oracle websites.
Oracle exited the advertising business in 2024: a banner on the Oracle Advertising Privacy Policy stated the services and their privacy options would no longer be available as of September 30, 2024, ending the Data Cloud consumer-data operation.
Oracle acquired AddThis (announced January 5, 2016), whose website tools were embedded on 15 million websites, to extend Oracle Data Cloud's audience insight, measurement, and reach.
Oracle's Crosswise acquisition page (announced April 14, 2016) said Crosswise built a probabilistic Device Map matching multiple devices to individual users, and that Oracle Data Cloud aggregated more than 3 billion profiles from over 15 million websites while operating its ID Graph for cross-channel identity resolution.
TechCrunch's 2020 investigation described BlueKai's tracking stack: website cookies, invisible pixel-sized images that collect device and network information, user-agent fingerprinting to uniquely identify devices, and linking of mobile browsing to desktop activity.