Apple is known to provide privacy to its customers by giving them opt-out options to restrict their activity from being tracked on apple devices. Google is following Apple’s footsteps in providing privacy to its users. In an upcoming update by google that is said to launch towards the end of 2021, the company will allow its users to opt-out of being tracked by advertisers through apps installed in their devices. The update will roll out in a phased manner through a new version of the Google Play Services. The update will initially be focused on devices running on Android 12, but Google has announced its plans to bring the update to a larger audience.
Advertisers Will Receive a String of Zeroes Instead of Any Particular Value
After the imminent update’s implementation, users will be able to restrict tracking by opting out of personalisations. Every android device has a unique advertising ID associated with it. Advertisers use this advertising ID to track users and serve targeted ads based on the users’ interests. Google has stated that any attempts to access the advertising ID identifier will receive a string of zeroes instead of the actual ID.
iPhone maker, Apple, calls its version of this move the App Tracking Transparency. Apple has announced this last year with the actual rollout starting in April 2021 with the iOS 14.5 update.
Google to Provide Notifications for Opt-Out Preferences
Apple’s way of providing users with this option was by showing pop-up messages on each app that lets the users decide if they want their activity to be tracked or not. Google will, however, take a combined approach for its platform. It will provide notifications for opt-out preferences to help advertisers and developer with compliance efforts.
Although Android users already have an option to opt-out of personalised ads that can be enabled by going through Settings>Google>Ads. At this moment, this feature does not completely restrict advertisers from tracking your activity. Google said that this Google Play Services update would reach devices that are not on Android 12 by early 2022. The company also added that apps targeting Android 12 would be required to declare a Google Play services normal permission in the manifest file.
