—GroupM defends use of T&C’s: Last week, former Interactive Advertising Bureau head Greg Stuart took GroupM to task for publicly going off on its own concerning the ownership of user data that collected from online advertising. GroupM sought to clarify its position: “Our organization is not seeking to claim ownership of data. Rather, we are seeking to protect the confidentiality of our clients’ campaign data and information. We expect that publishers will not share any data, information or insight from a campaign with a competitor or anyone else. In fact, every single media publisher we have contacted about this issue agrees with what we are trying to achieve with our proposed data confidentiality clause.” GroupM’s full response can be found at the bottom of Stuart’s post here.

The advertising market is not showing any signs of recovery yet. According to advertising companies, larger industries curtailed their marketing budgets since they expect that the crisis will get worse before it gets better.

Banks and mobile companies mainly continue producing advertising videos and promotional articles; however, development companies have almost pulled all their presence from TV.

Soso Gamulashvili, a senior consultant at GEPRA, a public relations and marketing communications company, believes that Colgate Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, Mars, Wrigley’s, and other transnational companies, are still containing the fall.

—Microsoft adds “bargain” mantle to its “uncool PC” stance: The Jerry Seinfeld ads now a distant memory, Microsoft’s “I’m A PC” campaign has been driving how Windows users are ordinary folks, not elitist snobs like Mac users. Now, with the economy in the tank, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has added another attribute it hopes will help it triumph over Apple: thriftiness. A new spot making the rounds (see it here) shot documentary style has a young woman named Lauren searching for an under $1,000 17-inch laptop. If she can find one—even at the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Store—Microsoft promises to give her the cash. She appears dejected leaving the Apple Store after a 13-inch Macbook was the only item in her budget—and laments, “I guess I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.”

“The company is now operating in an anti-crisis regime. The first response under these circumstances is to reduce marketing budgets, and this is taking its toll on the advertising market,” Galumashvili said. “The crisis is going to climax in April and May. These months were productive for the advertising company before, but not this year. Budgets of advertising companies will further decrease during this peak.”

—Carat predicts 5.8 percent global ad decline: Nothing on specific categories like online or newspapers in the UK media buying firm’s latest ad spend forecast. But its predictions are predictably dismal: Carat’s new prediction for worldwide expenditure this year is a fall of 5.8 percent, with a small return to growth of 0.7 percent next year. 2009’s forecast declines are led by negative growth in almost every major advertising market, with the exception of China. As for the U.S., Carat sees a staggering 9.8 percent drop this year, with the losses narrowing to only a 2.7 percent fall-off in 2010.