Google has announced that it will begin withdrawing ad-tracking apps from its Android operating system, overturning the way ads and data collection work on phones and tablets used by more than 2,5 billion people worldwide.
Google currently places special identifiers on each Android device, allowing advertisers to profile what users do with their phones and target them advertisements highly targeted.
Google will start testing alternatives solutions for these identifiers this year and will eventually remove them entirely, the company said in her blog on Wednesday. Google said the changes would improve privacy for Android users by limiting the huge amount of data that app developers collect from people who use the platform.
However, this move could give Google even more power over digital advertising and is likely to confirm regulatory concerns about the company's competitive practices…
To mention that it earned $ 61 billion from ads alone fourth quarter of 2021 (PDF).
The announcement comes about a year after Apple decision block ad trackers in its own operating system, giving customers more tools to limit the data they share with application developers.
Google contrasts its plan with that of Apple, saying it will make the changes over the next two years, and work closely with application developers and the advertising industry to create new ways to target ads.
Of course they must first measure their effectiveness before making any changes.
"We realize that the others platforms have taken a different approach to ad privacy by bluntly limiting existing technologies used by developers and advertisers,” Anthony Chavez, Android's vice president of product management for security and privacy, said in the blog.
"We believe that without providing an alternative route to maintaining privacy, such approaches may be ineffective and lead to worse outcomes for user privacy and businesses of developers".
