Telecom giant Vodafone has started testing a new way to track people by assigning a unique advertising ID, TrustPid.
Vodafone’s TrustPid creates a fixed ID for everyone at the ISP level and then starts collecting data about the person, including tracking their activities, with the ID.
According to the company, this is a simple trade-off if people want to consume high-quality content on the internet for free. With the rise in the number of people using adblockers or circumventing tracking cookies on their browsers and devices, Vodafone has come up with an alternative tracking method to ensure publishers don’t lose revenue.
Vodafone is currently testing the advertising ID in Germany with one of the largest websites in Germany, Bild.de, and Deutsche Telekom — the parent company of T-Mobile.
“Consumers appreciate the idea of a ‘free’ Internet, but this comes with a trade-off: publishers need a sustainable revenue model, meaning that it becomes essential to add subscription paywalls or rely on advertising to maintain free access to high-quality content,” reads TrustPid’s website. managed by Vodafone Sales and Services Limited. “Online content is often free because it is supported by advertising, paywalls and subscriptions using registered email addresses. By giving your consent to TrustPid, you are helping to keep content across the Internet free.”
According to the company, there is no way to bypass TrustPid at the browser level –blocking cookies or masking the IP address.
According to Spiegel, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom have also filed a complaint with the European Commission against Apple as its iCloud Private Relay could prove to hinder TrustPid’s tracking.
“Where you have provided consent, advertisers and publishers will use the website specific tokens to provide you with personalised online marketing or conduct analytics,” TrustPid’s privacy policy reads. “We collect anonymous, de-identified or aggregate information in order to improve the service we offer to everyone. None of these analytics are linked back to you in any way.”
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