Google wants to end targeting of users for advertising purposes on Android, in the name of respecting their privacy, according to a blog post of the company published on February 16. Attention, no question of adopting the brutal approach » chosen by another unnamed platform [Apple], Mountain View promises to go smoothly. May be too much ?
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With 70% of smartphones and tablets running on Android, the end of user tracking for advertising purposes could take its toll. This data accumulation system has been the basis of the remuneration of platforms on the Internet for almost 20 years.
Meta knows something about it. During its fourth quarter results, the company announced that it had lost $10 billion due to a similar decision by Apple. Its market valuation plummeted instantly, down $230 billion.
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In 2021, the apple brand implemented App Tracking Transparency (ATT). The device forces application developers to ask whether users agree to the data collected by their services being shared with third-party companies for advertising purposes. This is not a problem for her, most of her income comes from her hardware sales.
This is not the case for platforms, including Google. The web giant itself derives about 80% of its revenue from advertising. If the company itself was rather spared by Apple’s decision, it is thanks to the data collected directly by its services, its search engine, YouTube, Google Maps, etc.
For Anthony Chavez, vice president of the Android division of Google, the art and the way of proceeding of the unmentioned competing platform [Apple] are counterproductive, We believe that without first providing an alternative privacy-preserving path, such approaches may be ineffective and lead to worse outcomes for user privacy and developer business. “.
Google’s transition plan from follow-up to after remains unclear
Google therefore decided to take its time. Its Advertising ID service, a tracking feature built into Android, and its other advertising tools will continue to be offered during ” at least two years “.
A period that should allow the company to develop new advertising technologies for advertisers, more respectful of user privacy. Google, under pressure from Apple, has already given, in June 2021, the possibility of refusing personalized ads.
Privacy Sandbox, intended to replace third-party cookies in Google’s browser, Chrome, could be extended to Android. The tool should have taken over from cookies, its web trackers, this year, but the end of cookies has been postponed. Between technical problem and reluctance of the British competition authority. The latter fears that the smallest players in advertising on the net will suffer too much from this disappearance, to the benefit of Google.
Mountain View is committed to working hand in hand with regulators. Google offers ” from today “for developers to examine their ” initial design proposals and provide feedback on the Android Developer site “.
Google’s caution and assumed slowness have already made one happy: Graham Mudd, vice president of product marketing, ads and business at Facebook, found it encouraging ” this long-term collaborative approach to privacy-protecting personalized advertising from Google “.
Encouraging to see this long-term, collaborative approach to privacy-protective personalized advertising from Google. We look forward to continued work with them and the industry on privacy-enhancing tech through industry groups.https://t.co/UdrlTLJmsz
—Graham Mudd (@grahammudd) February 16, 2022
In the meantime, details on the alternative measures envisaged are lacking to assess its impact. On the other hand, there is no more precise timetable than the ” at least two years “. As the example showed, third-party cookies, both Android and Chrome users, will have to be patient before the arrival of confidentiality measures.