Goodbye advertising cookie, hello advertising ID

Goodbye advertising cookie, hello advertising ID

Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone want to change the market. Until now, customers' data traffic has normally been forwarded untouched to the Internet by mobile providers. This is now set to change - but data protectionists are sounding the alarm.

The big companies and telephone providers want to use it to better market their customer data. There are new offers and ideas for this. Normally, all end-customer data traffic has been forwarded untouched to the Internet by the mobile provider up to now. However, this data traffic will be intervened in the future. This means that each user gets a fixed ID. This identifier is based on the mobile phone number of the customer. Website operators can then use this identifier to record exactly what content the user and customer is currently viewing. This in turn creates a personal profile so that the advertising is displayed in a targeted manner. One argument for this is, for example, the possibility of using this approach to implement enough online offers economically to remain free in the future.

Identification on the web

Advertisers are particularly excited about this opportunity, as advertising cookies may soon come to an end. The iPhone manufacturer Apple is particularly concerned with this option. Of course, he does this for advertising purposes. It is also interesting that Google plans to generally disable advertising cookies in Google Chrome in 2023. Because it won't be long until then, there must be new technical solutions and bases for advertising measures.

Personalized advertising as a goal of large companies

It's clear that non-personalized advertising is not interesting for the entire advertising industry. That's why a real race for advertising IDs has emerged. The methods for this are very diverse. Tracking blocks are technically bypassed, and at the same time there are often redirects in the background while the user is on a website. Very many providers motivate the customer to log in permanently and accept all data processing at the same time.

Therefore, Telekom and Vodafone are in a unique position. Data traffic can always be linked to the corresponding mobile phone number in the future. Although they claim not to provide access to a real cell phone number or the customer's name, this practice is not legitimate. Such a pseudonymous identifier also entails risks in the assignment.

Cookies that cannot be deleted

The TrustPid version is currently in the test phase for this. Vodafone is holding back on information for this new future digital advertising in Europe. Supposedly, publishers, advertisers, and also consumers should be able to benefit equally. According to Vodafone, all participants are informed about the data management.

The tracking of one's own users has been around for a long time; this technique was already used in 2012 by the US provider Verizon. Sometime later, super cookies became known, which cannot be deleted at all. For such an approach, however, a high fine must be paid. Vodafone wants to avoid such problems right away. The company assures that compliance with data protection laws as well as data security and privacy protection have priority. However, data protectionists are not enthusiastic about this initiative by the mobile providers; on the contrary, they are sounding the alarm.