We can expect big news when it comes to tracking transparency on Android apps. Google has announced that it will allow users to opt out of sharing their ID with advertisers. This ID (Unique Device Identifier) ​​allows marketers to track users as they move between apps. This reaction from Google comes about two months after Apple made a similar change. This will be a major innovation in tracking app transparency on Android devices and another step Google is taking in recent efforts for greater user data privacy.

Tracking transparency on Android apps

“Starting at the end of 2021, when a user disables interest-based advertising or ad personalization, the advertising identifier will not be available. You will get a string of zeros instead of the identifier,” Google says officially.

This change will happen in phases, starting with apps running on Android 12 by the end of this year. The change will also apply to apps launched on devices that support Google Play from the beginning of 2022.

“Persistent identifiers are still available because there are various supported use cases that are not related to advertising. In the long term, we will evaluate additional options to provide users with even more information about which persistent identifiers are provided to third parties. We will communicate this prominently and in advance when we have details .”

This identifier may also be used for other purposes, such as analytics or fraud prevention. Google will look to provide an alternative to support such use cases in July.

A greater focus on data privacy can help Google gain a better reception and image in the public eye. It also means that Google is really increasing its control over user data. This can be a cause for concern if the company is not transparent about how it handles user data.

Is Google being completely honest after all?

Google ‘s new privacy policies are quite similar to Apple ‘s changes in app tracking transparency. However, Google ‘s option implies an ” opt-out ” option undertaken by the user. So user tracking is by default, and the user is the one who turns off this possibility. Apple ‘s option is “opt-in”, where users are specifically asked if they want to allow the app to track them when the app is opened for the first time.

If Google ‘s implementation is similar to Apple ‘s, it means that a larger percentage of users can opt out of tracking, which could prevent advertisers from tracking users or selling their data to other companies. On the other hand, if the ” opt-out ” option is hidden somewhere in the menus, in a not very transparent way, the impact on advertisers will not be so drastic.

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