Android apps will soon no longer be able to follow you for advertising
Google will soon give Android users the option to stop being tracked by apps for advertising purposes. Apple already made such a decision in April for apps from the App Store. This is an important privacy function that will be available in Android from the end of this year.
App trackers
You will soon be able to choose whether you want personalized advertising on the apps of your Android phone or not. The company makes this known on Google’s support website, which Bloomberg was the first to discover. If users opt out of personalized advertising, they can no longer be tracked by advertisers. After that, targeted ads no longer appear in apps.
Google is thus following the example of Apple, which announced in April that users can decide to turn off personalized advertising for each individual app. The App Tracking Transparency feature as it’s called. When that became known, we knew that Google wanted to introduce something similar for the Play Store, but given Google’s revenue model that is based on advertising, we expected that the measures in Android would be less drastic compared to iOS. Google also reacted cautiously to the news at the time.
Far-reaching consequences
The reverse turns out to be true, because at the end of this year there will be one general switch with which you can disable the personalized ads for all apps at once. If you disable it, no app will see users’ personal advertising IDs, and they will no longer be able to show targeted advertisements. The feature will be added to Android 12 from the end of this year via an update to Google Play Services. Older Android versions will receive the update from early 2022.
This decision by Google could have major consequences for the revenue model of apps. Developers can still offer advertising that is not based on the interests of users, but such advertisements are less profitable. In particular, Facebook was one of the biggest opponents of this model, and it was already at odds with Apple.
Alternative coming?
The question now is what alternatives Google is putting forward for app developers who are afraid of seeing their sales dwindle. In April, Google already indicated that it is looking for a kind of middle ground. “We’re always looking for ways to partner with developers to raise the bar on privacy, while also ensuring a healthy ad-based ecosystem,” a Google spokesperson told Bloomberg. .
There is a chance that Google will come up with an alternative by the end of this year that will keep the revenue of app developers intact and the privacy of the user is not compromised. Although nothing is known about it yet. Google is also putting an end to tracking cookies in its Chrome browser and is pushing forward its new FLOC system. Although it must be said that this system also has its opponents.
Are you satisfied that you will soon be able to disable all personalized advertising on Android devices? Are you more concerned about a possible alternative system that could further compromise user privacy? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.
