Utiq – The ad tracking of your (European) ISP and how to avoid it | Hacker News Reader

Utiq – The ad tracking of your (European) ISP and how to avoid it

korben.info

44 pointsLelouBil13 comments

List of providers that use this, from Utiq's website:

  supported mobile connections:
  - UK: O2, Vodafone, VOXI
  - Spain: Movistar, Orange, Jazztel, Simyo, Vodafone
  - France: Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR, Sosh, Red by SFR
  - Germany: Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Congstar, Fraenk, O2, Blau Mobilfunk by O2, Ortel Mobile by O2, otelo, SIMon, Freenet* and Klarmobil* (*but only in the Deutsche Telekom network), WhatsAppSIM, Nettokom, Fonic, AY YILDIZ, Tchibo Mobil
  - Canada: Bell, Rogers, Telus
    Starting from 1st of June 2026, Bell, Rogers and Telus connections will no longer be supported.
    This means that, even if you consent, the Utiq technology will not be activated. All the data related to these connections held in the Utiq Platform will also be deleted
  - Italy: TIM
  
  supported broadband connections:
  - UK: Vodafone
  - France: Orange, Bouygues Telecom, SFR, Sosh, Red by SFR, Free
  - Spain: Movistar, Orange, Jazztel, Simyo
  - Germany: Deutsche Telekom, O2, Vodafone

> You are in control

But also:

> The Utiq technology is linked to the internet connection. This means that anyone using the same connection will have access to the same consenthub view and will be able to manage Utiq consents given when using that connection. For example, when you share broadband connection with others in your household or if you use tethering/hotspot.

And of course the consent management panel is behind a CAPTCHA - god forbid someone automate revoking consent! I'm guessing no CATPCHA is needed to give consent, though.

Even sneakier. If you use an ad block(FF android with Privacy Badger and Block Origin) it'll tell you your connection doesn't support uniq yet. But if you then load the page in chrome without add-ons you can suddenly manage it, despite being on the same connection!

I guess I can't expect an advertising platform to work with adblockers on.

Yeah, just found a consent banner for this. No CAPTCHA, and the following sentence buried half way through the consent screen:

> By consenting, you confirm that you have permission from the telecom account holder to enable the Utiq technology on this internet connection.

I cannot adequately express my contempt for people who have designed and implemented this.

Clearly the law does not sufficiently disincentivize such spying. CEOs should not be thinking "how much can we get away with", they should be thinking "how do I stay out of jail", like any black-hat hacker would be. Until they're punished as severely as weev was for accessing public URLs [1], it will only get worse.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse_Security#AT&T/iPad_emai...

It’s absolutely crazy that the land of GDPR can legally implement a tracking mechanism this invasive. I guess this is legal because it doesn’t use cookies, and they “obtain consent”?

GDPR was never about cookies but about freely given consent.

Two things that make Utiq absolutely terrible (and imho illegal)

1. It's crazy that any person who is using my internet connection (guest wifi?) can give "consent" that leads to everyone else being tracked.

2. ISPs are abusing their highly privileged position. It's not easy to switch providers (if at all possible), so as "gatekeepers" they should behave responsibly (c.f. DMA designated Gatekeepers etc) and not abuse their power.

In the UK it is very easy to switch providers if you use a BT line. As this is a result of local loop unbundling rules that were in place before Brexit it must be the same within the EU, and other countries may have similar rules.

It is not particularly difficult to switch to providers that have their own local connections if they supply your area either (in the UK, at least).

The thing is, in many cases the provider selling internet to you isn't the same as whoever owns the cables that arrive to your place. So you may switch between providers (which in Spain are owned by 4 groups: MasOrange, Movistar/Telefónica, Vodafone and DIGI) but in many cases your IP goes through Telefónica's network (either by hiring them, or via NEBA, basically renting their infra) or MasOrange (they acquired a lot of local companies like R in Galicia, Euskaltel in the Basque Country, Telecable, and many others, including Orange) and basically own 14 brands as of now [^1].

So even if you do switch providers, chances are you are using one of the same (if not the actual same) provider, and got perhaps other options in those 4 groups. There's an actual coverage map by our Ministry for Digital Transformation[^2] that shows what actual coverage there is. Sometimes there's "Aire Networks" or others, but mostly it's the four large groups I mentioned before.

[^1]: https://masorange.es/en/brands/ [^2]: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/275e90e49dc544ef94e...

At least in the UK, if you use a BT line as GP mentioned (via OpenReach), they provide the physical connection but anything on top of that is up to the ISP.

In OSI terms, OpenReach does layers 1 and 2, and the ISP is responsible for 3. That means your IP addresses, your IPv6 PD, etc are all on the ISP. If you change ISPs, it’s a whole new IP infra even if it uses the same OpenReach cables.

Switching provider isn't an option, it's only a matter of time before all the actors implement this garbage, there need to be strong legal bariers. Anyone sane would think we need forbidding laws as broad, vague and expeditive as the ones they use to justify DRMs and shit so corporate won't even try to fuck around because it'd be so easy to find out.

> Switching provider isn't an option, it's only a matter of time before all the actors implement this garbage, there need to be strong legal bariers.

possibly, but there are UK providers who sell at a premium to users who would largely hate thi - e.g. Zen of A & A.

> Anyone sane would think we need forbidding laws as broad, vague and expeditive as the ones they use to justify DRMs and shit so corporate won't even try to fuck around because it'd be so easy to find out.

Who is going to pay for the lobbying for those !?

I will add my current ISP Aquiss to that list. I doubt something like this would go down well with their customers. They’re not nearly as expensive as A&A either.

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