Google To Make It Harder For Advertisers To Track Users On Android

Mobile users are tired of advertisers tracking what they do on the Internet, and both Google and Apple have made changes to help prevent tracking. While Apple implemented changes to make it more difficult for appetizers to track users, Google is just now gearing up to make similar changes. Google has allowed Android users to opt out of personalized ads for a long time.

However, even if the user opts out of personalized ads, Google has still allowed software developers to access the user's Advertising ID. The Advertising ID is a unique string of characters that identifies the user's device. Advertisers access the information for purposes like measuring app usage or to allow advertisers to detect and prevent invalid traffic.

The new change by Google will allow the user to opt-out of personalized ads and will make the Advertising ID unavailable. Any advertiser request for the Advertising ID will return all zeros. Google has recently confirmed that the change will impact all apps running on Android 12 devices starting late this year.

The modification will then roll out to apps running on devices supporting Google Play in early 2022. Google is promising advertisers an alternate solution to support essential use cases such as analytics and fraud prevention. Google has been promising to increase the privacy of users of its services and software, such as Chrome.

Last year, Google promised it would end support for third-party cookies on the Chrome browser within two years. However, anything that impacts advertising is thoroughly thought out by Google as advertising generates 80 percent of the search giant's overall revenue. It also sees the need to keep advertisers happy by providing alternative ways to place ads in front of Internet users and track their effectiveness.