Mobile Advertising ID (MAID)
A resettable identifier assigned to a phone (Apple IDFA or Google AAID) that links app activity and location to a single device.
Full definition
A Mobile Advertising ID (MAID), Apple's IDFA or Google's Advertising ID, is a unique string that advertisers and data brokers use to tie together a device's app usage, location pings, and ad interactions without using your name. Location-data brokers like the ones the FTC sued (X-Mode, Gravy Analytics, Mobilewalla) keyed their datasets on MAIDs harvested from apps and ad auctions. Because a MAID maps cleanly to a real person once cross-referenced, resetting it (or turning off ad tracking entirely) meaningfully degrades the profile brokers can build. On iOS, App Tracking Transparency lets you deny the IDFA per app.
Go deeper
How location data brokers work →Related terms
Real-Time Bidding (RTB)
The automated auction that sells an ad slot in milliseconds as a page loads, broadcasting user data to many bidders in the process.
Location Data Broker
A data broker specializing in precise geolocation data, often harvested from app SDKs and ad auctions, sold for targeting and analytics.
Device Fingerprinting
Identifying a device by the unique combination of its settings and characteristics, without cookies or a stored ID.
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