Google announces the abolition of Advertising ID

Google plans to limit cross-app tracking on Android devices as part of expanding privacy management more broadly. This is a result of Apple's stance to keep up with policy changes.

Google announced on February 16 that it will remove the app's tracking identifiers and limit the sharing of user data with third parties on Android in a multi-year effort. The purpose is to improve user privacy in the app ecosystem.

This restriction applies to the Advertising ID, which is an Android identifier. Advertising ID is a technology that allows advertisers to track user behavior as they move between apps by assigning a unique string to the device.

And this is a technology that has the same functionality as IDFA, a randomly generated code on Apple devices.

In April 2021, Apple required app developers to obtain user consent when collecting unique device codes. The goal is to give users more control over their data. Early research data show that the majority of iPhone users (estimated over 95%) opt out of tracking.

This move has had a significant impact on the advertising industry, which has relied on the freedom to track users across apps and devices for mobile ad measurement, attribution, and targeting. In particular, it was a serious blow to technology giants like Meta, which owns Facebook. Meta, which has built a huge advertising business from a huge data pool and targeting ability, told investors in early February, due to a change in Apple's app tracking, more than 10 billion dollars (about 1.15 trillion yen) this year. It was revealed that the loss is expected. With this announcement, Meta's stock price plummeted by more than 26%, and in an instant, $ 230 billion (about 26,470 billion yen) disappeared from the market capitalization.

Google, meanwhile, has benefited from Apple's IDFA change. According to a study by WARC and AppsFlyer, in the first two weeks after Apple launched a new privacy feature, App Tracking Transparency (ATT), much of the advertising spending of app companies went from Apple to Android. It flowed in. And while Meta's advertising business is in trouble, Google, which accumulates search traffic and a wealth of data collected from YouTube, has benefited further from advertisers moving their spending to Android. there is a possibility. Google's 2021 advertising revenue was up 42.5% year-on-year.

However, with increasing regulatory scrutiny over monopoly business practices, it is almost inevitable that Google will change its advertising business.

Little details have been given on how to get rid of the reliance on tracking identifiers. Some observers have pointed out that the announcement may be a time-saver to find a way to balance user privacy with the advertising business while soothing regulators.

Google has set a two-year transition period for advertisers to accommodate this significant change. During this time, support for existing advertising platform features will continue.

It also revealed that it will expand its plans for the "Privacy Sandbox Initiative," which aims to develop new privacy-focused advertising solutions with the industry, from traditional web browsers to Android.

In addition to changing identifiers, the company is also working on technologies that make it difficult to collect data in a hidden manner, such as a more secure way to integrate the app with the advertising SDK.

This long-term approach reduces the impact on advertisers. Still, the advertising industry does not eliminate the need to develop new solutions and work procedures that protect user privacy.

Apple has announced that it will implement IDFA changes without addressing industry concerns or addressing alternatives. Google has also indirectly criticized Apple's abrupt and aggressive moves.

Anthony Chavez, vice president of security and privacy product management for Android, said in a blog post, "Another platform takes a different approach to ad privacy and existing technologies used by developers and advertisers. Is blatantly restricted. "

Mr. Chavez continues: "We believe that such an approach would be ineffective if we couldn't provide a privacy-friendly alternative first, with negative consequences for both user privacy and the developer's business."

In June 2021, Google introduced strict controls on Advertising IDs to prevent software developers from accessing the IDs of users who opt out of personalized advertising. Until then, developers could access their IDs to measure app usage and detect fraud, even after users opt out. In the future, Google says it will provide alternative solutions that do not require unique identifiers to support critical services such as analytics and fraud prevention.

These Google moves are in line with industry-wide efforts to improve user privacy on the Internet. Until then, for many years, mobile and web behavior has been tracked one by one without the explicit consent of the user. The transition to a more privacy-focused Internet experience begins at the browser level, with third-party cookies being phased out from the Chrome browser first. And it will be completely removed by the end of the year.

In January, Google announced "Topics," a new proposal for cookie alternatives.