Google has announced that, similar to Apple last year, it plans to give Android users more privacy by restricting tracking across apps on Android devices. Apple has added a new privacy feature to iOS that allows users to opt out of cross-site and cross-app tracking and targeting. In the next two years, Google promises to deliver something similar.
In a blog post, the software giant announced “Privacy Sandbox,” a multi-year project that will make it more difficult for advertisers to track Android users across multiple mobile apps. It will essentially limit the data that is shared with third-party apps, preventing advertisers from creating user profiles for targeted advertising.
Apple’s new privacy feature, which debuted with iOS 14.5 in 2021, is very similar to this new initiative. The framework is known as the App Tracking Transparency Framework (ATT). It mandates that all apps on an iPhone or iPad ask users for permission to track them across multiple apps and websites. Big companies like Facebook have been shaken by this privacy feature.
The parent company of the social media giant, Meta, recently revealed that the privacy change has cost them money and that they will continue to lose money because the feature prevents users’ data from being collected, preventing them from being tracked and served ads. In 2022, Facebook’s parent company expects its ad business to be impacted as well.
Google’s Privacy Sandbox, on the other hand, differs from Apple’s privacy feature. By default, it aims to limit tracking. Currently, Google assigns a unique ID to each Android phone, allowing advertisers to create profiles based on a user’s smartphone activity. They are then shown highly targeted ads as a result. So now you know why you see ads for those products or services in some places when you search or shop for something online.
Google is basically testing new and better ways to serve advertisers with the new initiative, as it wants to completely remove those IDs, according to a blog post by the company. According to the company, the project will “assist in limiting the sharing of user data with third parties and operating without cross-app identifiers, such as cookies.”