It has been reported that Vodafone is piloting a new advertising ID system called TrustPid, which will work as a persistent user tracker at the mobile Internet Service Provider (ISP) level. The new system is in test phase in Germany and is intended to be impossible to bypass from within the web browser settings or through cookie blocking or IP address masking.
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This is a bold move from Vodafone that will receive a lot of scrutiny from customers.
Not only is user privacy being significantly impacted but it will also put very confidential user data in the hands of third parties, which could make it more vulnerable to data breaches.
Attackers always look to target data rich organisations, so when a business holds sensitive information on Vodafone’s entire customer base, this makes them a prime target for hacking. Any attacker that is successful would hold a wealth of data on Vodafone customers that could be sold on the dark web or used in phishing to reap further monetary gains.
Vodafone must ensure it selects only highly secure organisations to work with in this new initiative. The organisations must be able to clearly demonstrate they have a strong security posture and that they can meet the challenge of keeping Vodafone’s customer data secure.