Mobile Advertising ID

Full Title or Meme

The MAID is used to track user's smartphones.

Context

Tracking user's smartphones is now routine in the US. Here is what an ad agency has to say.

MAIDs were built for the advertising community. Like cookies, mobile advertising IDs connect activity back to a real person. Because MAIDs are tied to an individual mobile device, they offer a precise way to identify specific people. Since MAIDs are set by the operating system (not the browser), they’re common across all application publishers. There’s no need to perform a sync, which can slow down identifying your customers and data collection. Plus, the lifespan of a MAID is about seven to eight months, allowing for persistent recognition.

MAID Type	Description	Example
IDFA	Identifier for Advertising (iOS)	BCDE4299-01DT-98TC-D3F4-P57263876209
AAID	Google Advertising ID for Android	28757bwa-bd67-6d1c74bb-ae4d19ab5d34

Problems

FTC sues data broker that tracks locations of 125M phones per month. Agency says data shows users visits to clinics and homeless shelters