Google has announced plans to introduce changes to its privacy policy that will affect how the data of users is shared. It’s a move similar to that of Apple that had massive repercussions across the online advertising industry. However, Google has stressed that the limitations of how users’ data is shared on Android devices will be accompanied by a range of measures that should ensure a similar level of advertising capacity.
The announcement from Google came on Wednesday and the new range of privacy restrictions will effectively limit any tracking of a user’s online behavior across its Android device. The move will introduce a new kind of digital identification that will come in the form of a series of characters that identify a particular device. This upgraded identification will feature new privacy-focused features that inhibit how advertisers learn information about their potential customers.
While it could be up to two years until Google introduces its new identifiers, it still means that advertising tech companies will face a big challenge in getting to grips with the new privacy formats. Google is under pressure to show that it is compliant with the privacy issues that have frequently been a focal point of lawmakers in the past few years. With a growing public distrust of how big tech uses individuals’ data, it was clear that Google had to act sooner or later.
What impact will the Google privacy changes have?
All of this is important as Apple’s recent privacy changes sent shockwaves through the online advertising industry. It was a move that managed to wipe $232 billion off Facebook’s market cap and caused the social media giant to suffer one of the biggest stock market losses of all-time.
This caused Facebook to be hugely critical of Apple for the rollout of its App Tracking Transparency feature. Such technology meant that iOS users could simply block apps from tracking their personal data simply by accepting a message on a pop-up window.
However, Facebook has looked to be more welcoming of the upcoming privacy changes to be introduced by Google. A statement from the tech giant said that it was, ‘encouraging to see this long-term, collaborative approach to privacy-protective personalized advertising from Google.’
Such a comment hints at how disruptive Apple’s sudden change in privacy permissions shook up the industry and it indicates that Google is going to be more willing to work with advertisers in how it develops its new privacy technology.
It’s expected that the new technology will still allow advertisers to understand how effective a particular advertising campaign has been, but it will work to decrease how third parties will have access to an individual’s personal data.
Google is by far more reliant upon advertising revenue than Apple who makes up the bulk of its profits from the sales of its hardware. As such, we can expect Google’s upcoming privacy changes to work hard to not alienate advertisers.
