According to AdExchanger, US operator T-Mobile will sell customers’ mobile phone application usage data and network activity data to third-party advertisers.
Last year, T-Mobile used an online campaign to enroll its users in an advertising program called App Insights, which it has been testing for 12 months, AdExchanger said. With App Insights, T-Mobile can get data such as how often users launch apps, which WiFi networks are connected, and which websites are visited in the browser.
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T-Mobile calls the data “the most powerful indicator of consumer intent,” adding that “apps speak louder than words.” T-Mobile provides this data from App Insights to advertisers, allowing them to target ads based on this data. Through data aggregation analysis, advertisers can group users with the same characteristics.
For example, people who have installed human resource management apps (ADP), travel expense management apps (Concur), and travel apps (Expedia) on their phones can be classified as business travelers, and advertisers can use this data to serve relevant ads. McDonald’s, a beta partner, used the platform to analyze app install activity based on whether people uninstalled its app after ordering a discounted meal.
Moreover, the network activity data can be more informative than mobile app data, allowing carriers to see if users are jumping from one website to another. AdExchanger said T-Mobile only intends to use the web tracking data to distinguish different users, and user details will not be provided to advertisers.
Furthermore, T-Mobile has said that T-Mobile will mask the specific identity of the user, and the data will be marked with the user code or device ID to ensure anonymity. And T-Mobile doesn’t use location data to locate its customers.
App Insights will not capture data on iPhone users, AdExchanger said. phonearena said it may be that T-Mobile doesn’t want to anger Apple, or that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework has made it more difficult to track users.
It’s worth mentioning that App Insights is an opt-out program. Users can download “Magenta Marketing Platform Choices” or “App Choices,” where users can identify which companies are accessing your information, and can choose to block access, The Verge says.
