Orange, Deutsche Telecom, Telefónica and Vodafone are embarking on targeted advertising to counter the influence of the GAFAs which have, for years, monopolized this extremely lucrative market. The four largest European operators, respectively of French, German, Spanish and British origin, have announced their intention to create a joint venture in this field, controlled in equal shares.
According to a document sent to the European Commission, this joint venture will offer “a privacy-focused digital identification solution to support the digital marketing and advertising activities of brands and publishers”.
Taking the opposite view of the digital giants who have made their honey from the exploitation of personal data, the four operators intend to emphasize respect for published life. Based on TrustPid technology, developed by Vodafone, the solution will consist in generating “a pseudonymised and secure token”, “linked to a user’s network subscription” and subject to the explicit consent (opt-in) of the latter.
This token will allow a brand or publisher to recognize it “without revealing any directly identifiable personal data”. The user will also have access to a portal dedicated to confidentiality allowing him, for each brand or publisher concerned, to give or withdraw his consent.
The programmed end of third-party cookies
This announcement comes in the context of the scheduled end of third-party cookies. These small files identify us on the sites visited for statistical purposes or to send us targeted advertising. Since the implementation of the GDPR, these third-party cookies, which are rather painful for the Internet user on a daily basis, must be the subject of explicit consent and are more easily deactivated.
The Mozilla Firefox browser allows these third-party cookies to be blocked and Google has announced their end on Chrome in 2024. Unlike these “cookie files” as they are called in Quebec, linked to a web browser, TrustPID uses the IP address to identify Internet users. The SIM card would be requested during mobile browsing, the Minded site understands, which evokes a joint test in France between Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR.
According to Jérôme Bouteiller, founder of Screen Mobile, telecom operators have submitted their project upstream to the various regulatory authorities such as the CNIL in France or the German BFDI. The European Commission has until February 10 to validate the project and report any competition problems.
According to the Euractiv site, the main European press publishers have given their support to the project. “Since May, Deutsche Telecom and Vodafone have been experimenting with this project in Germany with a limited number of advertisers and publishers, including Axel Springer’s Bild.de site and RTL. »
Unequal sharing of value
According to the same source, the think tank Center for European Reform, which has Apple and Amazon as members, would oppose this initiative for reasons of … protection of privacy. Explanation: users would be more willing to be followed for services offered free by web giants than for services for which they already pay operators.
Be that as it may, this adtech project, if it sees the light of day, would allow telecom operators to monopolize a little value from the content that passes through their networks. A debate as old as the internet. The platforms monopolize the bulk of web revenues and bandwidth by leaving the burden of the underlying infrastructure to the operators.
Commissioned by the French Federation of Telecoms (FFT), a recent study by the Arthur D. Little firm points out, with supporting figures, this inequitable sharing of value. The digital giants capture 30% of the revenues of the French digital ecosystem but contribute only 4% of investments, pay only 3% of taxes and duties and create only 11% of jobs.