While much of the panic has dispersed concerning Apple's on-off UDID deprecation, there's still plenty going on behind-the-scenes.

One of the most significant moves has been from online security outfit 41st Parameter.

It's spun up a wholly owned subsidiary AdTruth to bring its smarts to the mobile market, hiring ex-InMobi VP James Lamberti as SVP and general manager.

He, and his team, have been working hard since tracking and user ID became the mobile industry's hot issue in early 2012, trying to gain industry consensus around AdTruth's proprietary hardware fingerprinting technology.

Great minds

As part of this, AdTruth has created, or convened as it puts it, an informal grouping - loosely labelled the AdTruth Workgroup - which has seen 18 companies meeting in the US and Germany to discuss where the industry is heading.

Companies announcing their involvement at this stage are InMobi, King.com, MdotM, Mojiva, On Device Research, Razorfish, Smart AdServer, Somo Global and StrikeAd.

AdTruth points out this is exactly the cross-section of the industry, ranging from ad networks and exchanges, and marketing agencies to content developers, demand-side platforms (DSP) and analytics companies required to push the mobile ecosystem forward.

And now it's revealing something of the outcomes of those meetings as those companies - not all of whom have been publicly announced yet - will be using AdTruth's technology, in parallel with other solutions,

It hopes this will provide a longterm and cross platform replacement to the replacement of UDIDs and MAC addresses on iOS.

Pointing the finger

According to Lamberti, however, this initial focus on ID tracking and user privacy and targeting is only the first wave of what he expects will be an ongoing initiative to make the mobile advertising, marketing and monetising ecosystem as robust as the desktop environment.

"We were privileged to host such a wide-ranging and influential group – all committed to playing a leadership role and growing the digital display advertising industry," he commented.

"After a few days of intense discussion and debate in both San Francisco and Munich, the group emerged with a clear path forward that we will share with other industry leaders over the coming months."

"As a mobile DSP, we see the power of being able to apply the full range of advanced advertising techniques such as retargeting, optimisation and analytics to the mobile handset, as well as the benefits which the AdTruth solution brings in helping verify and identify users," said Ilya Kazansky, EMEA sales engineering manager at StrikeAd.

"Having opportunities to explore and exchange ideas is always valuable," added Carl Uminski, COO of Somo Global.

"It's been especially valuable to get perspectives from other estuaries of the ecosystem. AdTruth is clearly committed to helping the industry recognise and resolve some of its most daunting challenges."

[source: AdTruth]