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  "documentTitle": "AppLovin (APP)",
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  "authorName": "Muddy Waters Research",
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  "presentationDate": "2025-03-27 00:00:00",
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      "text": "The collection of Shopify event data is critical to the success of the e-commerce launch because these behavioral actions inform APP’s ad auction bids.",
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      "text": "Code from APP e-commerce client Hume Health’s website reveals APP is collecting IDs of partners such as Meta, Google, Snap, Tiktok, and others. APP’s code labels each of these IDs as a “key” and sends them to its own servers. These IDs are stitched together to create what we call a Persistent identity Graph (PIG).",
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      "text": "The collection of Shopify event data is critical to the success of the e-commerce launch because these behavioral actions inform APP’s ad auction bids. We infer that APP’s algorithm is specifically trained to target high-value users. Knowing which users are poised to make purchases, especially those with items in carts or who are in the checkout process, is extremely valuable information (i.e., a black edge).",
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      "text": "Shopify events are also collected (e.g. cookies indicating an add to cart, checkout initiated, and/or Shopify’s own 1P “y_cookie”) and added to the “PIG.”1",
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      "text": "Example: APP Systematically Violates TOS by Creating Persistent Identity Graphs (PIGs)",
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