Google launches multiyear initiative to improve Android privacy

Google LLC today said that it’s launching a multiyear initiative to improve privacy for users of its Android operating system. 

The initiative focuses on targeted mobile advertising. More than 90% of the apps on Google Play are free, the search giant says, and many of those apps make money by displaying targeted ads to users. 

Android developers currently deliver targeted ads with the help of a feature called advertising ID. The feature enables apps to collect data about their users’ areas of interest, which they can then use to deliver personalized ads tailored for each user’s preferences.

The multiyear privacy initiative that Google announced today will seek to replace advertising ID with more privacy-friendly technologies. The goal is to limit the amount of user data that apps can collect. At the same time, Google aims to ensure that brands will still have the ability to deliver mobile ads relevant to their customers’ interests. 

“These solutions will limit sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID,” Anthony Chavez, vice president of product management for Android Security & Privacy, wrote in a blog post today. “We’re also exploring technologies that reduce the potential for covert data collection, including safer ways for apps to integrate with advertising SDKs.”

As part of the privacy initiative, Google plans to phase out advertising ID in favor of a collection of technologies known as the Privacy Sandbox. The technologies were originally developed as part of a separate effort by the search giant to improve privacy for users of its Chrome browser.

A core component of Privacy Sandbox is a system known as Topics. The system would limit apps’ ability to collect data, but still enable brands to align their advertising with consumer preferences. According to Google, Topics won’t allow apps to gather detailed user data and will instead only share information about each user’s top five areas of interest.

Google’s privacy initiative for Android also includes several other components besides Topics, including a technology called FLEDGE. The technology aims to provide brands with a more privacy-friendly way of delivering so-called remarketing ads. A remarketing ad is a promotion aimed at users who visited a brand’s website or app in the past.

Google will take a gradual approach with its plan to replace advertising ID. The company intends to release multiple developer previews of its proposed privacy features over the course of 2022, with the goal of having a beta version ready by year’s end. While Privacy Sandbox is being finalized, Google will continue supporting the “existing ads platform features” that apps use to deliver targeting ads.

“While we design, build and test these new solutions, we plan to support existing ads platform features for at least two years, and we intend to provide substantial notice ahead of any future changes,” Chavez wrote.

Google’s initiative to phase out advertising ID represents a significant development for the digital ad industry given the central role of Android in the mobile ecosystem. The initiative follows a similar move by Apple Inc., which last April updated iOS with a feature that enables users to limit targeted advertising on their devices. Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook Inc., earlier this month stated that it expects the iOS privacy changes to cost it about $10 billion in lost revenue this year.

In parallel with its push to replace advertising ID, Google is pursuing an initiative to phase out third-party cookies, another technology that advertisers use for targeted advertising. Google’s effort in this area also makes use of Topics and the other technologies included in Privacy Sandbox.

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