Google Will Limit Cross-App Tracking for Android

📱 Yesterday, Google announced plans to adopt new privacy restrictions that cut back on companies tracking users across different apps on Android smartphones.

• The tech giant declined to provide many details about the new system, except that it’ll be more privacy focused and designed with help from the industry itself.
• Google also committed to supporting the current tracking method for at least the next two years.
• Right now, people using Android devices are assigned special IDs that advertisers use to build a behavioral profile of the user, eventually placing highly-targeted ads on their screen.
• In April 2021, Apple moved to restrict such practices on iPhones by adding a pop-up that prompts users to either allow or prevent an app from tracking them. Per mobile analytics firm Flurry, US users opt out of tracking over 80% of the time.

📉 Zoom out: Earlier this month, Facebook said Apple’s privacy change will cost the social media giant $10 billion this year in lost ad revenue. FB is reportedly more receptive to Google’s proposed changes due to its collaborative approach and long time frame.

+On Capitol Hill: Democrats in the House and Senate introduced bills last month that would effectively ban most forms of targeted advertising.

+Elsewhere: Google announced a new plan for replacing Chrome web browser cookies last month after its initial proposal received pushback from privacy advocates.