Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone test an alternative to cookies, the TrustPID

Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone are testing an alternative to cookies in Germany, the TrustPID, the companies confirmed this week to Heise and Spiegel.

Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone represent more than half of the internet connections in Germany. In an initial phase, TrustPID is being tested in bild.de, one of the most popular news websites in Germany, from Axel Springer group.

The official website of TrustPID belongs to Vodafone Sales and Services Limited, a company from the UK, but the test is happening in Germany.

TrustPID is defined as unique digital ‘token’ generated by assigning random numbers to each user, to enable advertisers to provide personalised experiences.

Vodafone says it uses personal information from the users "to generate and manage the TrustPid, and to share the website specific tokens linked to each TrustPid with advertisers and publishers (and other third parties who act on their behalf)."

According to Vodafone, the consent for TrustPid is collected by advertisers and publishers via their Consent Management Platform (Cookie banner) when users visit their sites.

In TrustPID Privacy Portal, consumers are able to track which advertisers or publishers they have allowed to provide them with personalised online marketing in their websites based on their TrustPid in one central place; the possibility to withdraw consent at single website level and the ability to turn off the TrustPid service entirely, preventing any further use of the token.

We disabled iCloud Private Relay and visit Bild.de, but we could not manage the consent:

TrustPID is not compatible with iCloud Private Relay or VPNs. Beginning of this year, European telcos filed a complaint in the EU commission against iCloud Private Relay.

Index Exchange, one RTB exchange, already supports TrustPid. According to Index Exchange, TrustPid identifier is authenticated and it is in open Beta for publishers and in closed Beta for buyers. Publishers can also find information about TrustPid in the PreBid documentation.