Welcome to the BlueConic product release notes. This page is updated with each software update of the BlueConic platform.
Visit status.blueconic.com for current status updates for the BlueConic platform.
Product updates will be delivered to servers from March 19-25, 2021.
General availability of First-Party Hostname Console
With this release, the First-Party Hostname Console is available to all BlueConic customers. You can create a unique, first-party BlueConic hostname for each BlueConic channel, to ensure that web browsers will appropriately recognize your web content, cookies, and the BlueConic script as first party.
As web browsers continue to expand their cookie policies and ad-blocking technologies proliferate, first-party data (such as the customer profile data BlueConic collects) becomes even more valuable. ensure that web browsers recognize their scripts and cookies as first party. Learn more about first-party BlueConic hostnames.
BlueConic Academy available from the Help menu
Note to Apple iOS app developers
Starting with iOS 14.5, in order to submit an app to the app store Apple requires that app developers disclose the customer data they are tracking. This includes BlueConic app developers using the iOS SDK to develop apps. Learn more at the Apple developer site.
BlueConic security enhancements
Connecting BlueConic to SIEM systems
You can connect BlueConic to a security information and event management(SIEM) system to monitor and detect security events. Using the Audit Event API, a SIEM system can query BlueConic events.
New feature to limit access to BlueConic by IP address
To enhance the security of your BlueConic tenant, you can now restrict access to the BlueConic management UI and API to a certain range of IP addresses, such as your company network. If you have set up one or more BlueConic API Access connections, these connections and the specific API access they govern will also be affected by this limitation. You specify the range of IP addresses in the General Settings window in BlueConic.
Acxiom Connection authentication updates
The BlueConic Acxiom Connection now uses OAuth authentication in the setup page of the connection for importing Acxiom data to BlueConic.
Updates to the Adobe Marketo Engage Connection
We've updated the Adobe Marketo Engage Connection for the new Marketo bulk API, with performance enhancements and faster data imports and exports with Marketo.
New LinkedIn Connection
The BlueConic LinkedIn Connection allows you to enrich LinkedIn with data from BlueConic in order to target audiences on LinkedIn.
For information on accessing the LinkedIn connection, contact your BlueConic Customer Success Manager.
Product updates available as of February 2, 2021:
New First-Party Hostname Console
To ensure that web browsers and related technologies appropriately recognize your scripts and customer data as first-party data, we've introduced the BlueConic First-Party Hostname Console to help you create custom first-party hostnames in BlueConic. Follow these four steps:
- In the BlueConic UI, create a new custom hostname for each channel.
- BlueConic will send instructions for you, your system administrator, or your IT team to record these NS records with your DNS provider (for example, Amazon Web Services).
- Once the DNS changes are processed, BlueConic will create the needed infrastructure (can take up to 48 hours).
- Place the updated BlueConic script on your website.
Benefits of using BlueConic first-party-hostnames
There are several important benefits to using BlueConic hostnames:
- Because cookies set by your domain are first-party cookies, so they are not affected by Apple Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) feature, which deletes third-party cookies after 7 days.
- Customers using Safari can keep their profiles if they visit subdomains on your site.
- BlueConic is not shown on ITP's privacy report.
- You can continue to unify your first-party data in customer profiles and use that data to personalize and optimize customer interactions.
- Most ad-blocking technologies will not block scripts that use first-party hostnames.
Access to the BlueConic hostnames feature
The First-Party Hostname Console will be released to customer on a phased basis before general availability. If you are interested in adding this feature to your BlueConic tenant, please contact your BlueConic Customer Success Manager for more information.
Learn more at our Knowledge Base:
- Get an overview of first-party custom hostnames in BlueConic
- See the steps for creating and configuring BlueConic hostnames, including the steps your IT team will follow to update your DNS records.
- Get your questions answered in our FAQ on first-party hostnames.
Safari cookies and subdomains
Customers using Apple Safari will keep their profiles when they visit subdomains on your site.
BlueConic user passwords require 12 characters
For increased security, BlueConic user passwords are now required to be at least 12 characters in length. See the requirements for user passwords in BlueConic.
Existing BlueConic passwords do not have to change to meet this requirement. This change affects passwords set for new BlueConic users, or new passwords created or reset for existing users.
Set time zone for Salesforce Marketing Cloud (FTP) Connection
You can now set your time zone when you're setting up the Salesforce Marketing Cloud (FTP) connection to ensure that each system uses the correct time zone to process your data.
Acxiom Connection imports additional document types
The BlueConic connection to Acxiom now imports several types of documents in addition to person data, including household, residency, business, and place data.
For details see our Knowledge Base: Acxiom Connection
New MediaMath Connection
Use the new MediaMath Connection to target MediaMath advertising to customers in BlueConic segments. By exporting BlueConic profile data to MediaMath, you can use synchronize your customer information from BlueConic segments to MediaMath audiences.
For information on accessing the MediaMath connection, contact your BlueConic Customer Success Manager.