How myGaru Brought Ukraine’s Competing Telcos Together to Build an Identity Layer

The problem myGaru set out to solve

Ad targeting needs a reliable cross-environment identity. Cookies, device IDs and logins fail across browsers, apps and connected TV. The company started with a consumer-facing idea to give people control over data after GDPR, but that approach hit a practical limit: without a stable identity layer you can't consistently know who you're reaching.

What myGaru does differently

Instead of trying to become a single telco's ad stack, myGaru stitches multiple operators into a shared identity fabric while leaving raw data with each carrier. Key elements:

• No personal data moves between parties, and myGaru cannot reverse its coded values to phone numbers, names or emails.
• Every data access is recorded with a cryptographic audit trail. Morozenko said the same trail is used in Ukrainian battlefield management systems.

The model treats myGaru as an intermediary: it acts as a data processor under GDPR and positions its clients as data controllers. The company licenses its technology to local partners who handle telco onboarding when expanding to a new market.

Why carriers might join

Telcos have tried building ad businesses before and largely failed, often due to weak intent signals, limited coverage and high costs of building full ad stacks. myGaru's approach avoids consolidating raw data across rivals while combining reach. The company will not enter a market unless it can get clear paths to at least 70% population coverage, which addresses the coverage problem head-on.

In Ukraine, myGaru integrated all three major mobile operators (Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell) plus the landline operator Ukrtelecom. myGaru reports it can reach more than 115 million users across active markets that include Ukraine, Vietnam and Azerbaijan.

Business model and privacy posture

myGaru is DSP-agnostic and charges transaction-based fees for identity usage and data activation across whatever demand-side platforms clients use. The company emphasizes that it stores no PII inside its perimeter and that even a full data breach would leave no identifiable records.

Practical limitations and trade-offs

Telco signals are useful but limited. DNS lookups and carrier logs can indicate category-level interest but don't reveal ad-level engagement. That's why myGaru augments telco signals with retail and other data sources in some markets to broaden addressable use cases. The model depends on carrier willingness to integrate and on achieving scale in each market before rolling out to advertisers.

Bottom line

myGaru reframed an early consumer-centric idea into a telco-centric identity layer that combines reach without centralizing raw records. Its technical choices—pseudonymization, transient tokens, cryptographic logging—and legal posture as a processor aim to balance addressability, privacy and commercial practicality for advertisers and carriers.