In a move to provide enhanced privacy solutions on Android devices, Google has recently announced the adoption of new privacy solutions that will limit tracking across the apps on Android smartphones. A similar kind of step was taken by the Cupertino-based tech giant Apple for its users. The move from Apple, however, turned out quite unruly for multiple firms’ advertisement ways including the likes of Meta formerly known as Facebook.
Google’s Privacy Changes Will Differ from Apple
The company has announced that it is working on a multi-year initiative that will focus on introducing new and more private advertising solutions for the users. The reports suggest that the company is developing a ‘Privacy Sandbox’ on Android to introduce “more private advertising solutions” and these features will aim at limiting the user data shared with the third-party platforms. The new solutions will also work without cross-app identifiers including advertising ID. However, the company has also stated that these changes will take at least two years to be implemented. Apple also introduced a similar feature last year for its iPhone users as they received an option upon opening the apps to allow or disallow an app to track their data and preferences. As a result, a large majority of the users opted out resulting in an undesirable situation for the platforms relying on advertisements for revenue. The social media giant Meta was also affected by this step from Apple and stated that the new privacy features were “negatively impacting” its business. Although, Google is apparently not looking to walk on the same road as Apple did. The former stated that it is aware of the privacy solutions offered by the other platforms which bluntly restricted the existing technologies used by the developers and advertisers. This statement from Google was most likely a reference to Apple’s app tracking system. The company also stated that such harsh steps could actually be ineffective and create worsened scenarios for user privacy as well as developer businesses. The privacy solution in works to be implemented by Google will focus on still giving advertisers the data they need while still improving its users’ privacy. However, as mentioned above, it’s still a couple of years until the privacy sandbox is completely implemented and cross-app tracking of users via the advertising ID on Android will be how things stand.
