Google says it's bringing Apple-like privacy features to Android

Google has announced that it would be bringing Apple-like privacy changes to Android, but promised that the updates wouldn't be as "disruptive" as features like App Tracking Transparency.

The planned Android changes are aimed at limiting the sharing of data across apps and third-party websites, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Google didn't outline a release timeline, but said it would support existing privacy technologies for at least two more years.

In contrast to Apple, Google emphasized that the goal of its privacy changes would be to find a more private option for users that also allows developers to continue making money off of advertising.

More specifically, the changes will adopt some of the browser-based privacy features on its Chrome browser for Android. Google's current privacy initiative is dubbed Project Sandbox.

Google said its privacy-minded features would allow advertisers to gauge the performance of ad campaigns and place personalized ads based on recent interests or past behavior. They would also limit the covert tracking of users.

The company did not offer many other details about how the new changes would work, however. It did say it plans on removing the Advertising ID tracker and would eventually phase out the use of identifiers in advertising on Android in general.

Apple's privacy changes, which includes App Tracking Transparency, also limit the sharing of data with third parties and other apps. The iPhone maker released the privacy update back in early 2021 following a campaign against the feature led by advertising-reliant companies like Facebook.

App Tracking Transparency requires developers to explicitly ask permission before they track users — and it has had a significant impact on advertising revenue. Earlier in February, Facebook parent company Meta said that its social media platform could take a $10 billion revenue hit from Apple's iOS privacy changes.

Google's emphasis on supporting advertisers underscores the difference between the two companies. Google makes most of its cash from advertising, while Apple generates the majority of its revenue through hardware sales.

16 Comments

rob53 3307 comments · 13 Years

About 2 years ago

In other words worthless security and business as usual.

rorschachai 62 comments · 3 Years

Apparently simply asking for consent is “disruptive”. Well, I guess it is if your business model relies on practices that are so shady you don’t want to tell users what you’re doing.

some-other-guy 1 comment · 2 Years

Sure the fox does a great job guarding that hen house.

zimmie 651 comments · 9 Years

rob53 said:

In other words worthless security and business as usual.

Not exactly. It's Google making their competitors' data less valuable. Most people who use Android use it with a Google account. Google can, of course, track all the activity on your Google account such as which applications you buy. Removing advertising IDs which in-app ads from other companies can use prevents those advertisers from recognizing that you see their adds from multiple applications. Google can still tell, though.

This is textbook anticompetitive behavior, but is actually an improvement if you use Android without a Google account.

Alex_V 260 comments · 6 Years

rob53 said:

In other words worthless security and business as usual.

Yes, I presume that, in time, Google’s privacy initiative will be mostly about preventing other companies from gate-crashing their party. There is no chance that Google will kill their golden goose. Constructing detailed, intimate profiles of citizens/consumers (like nothing that has existed before), tracking them on the web and beyond, and serving them as targets to advertisers for all manner of manipulation, will be “the greatest show on earth”—ripe for all kinds of organisations to exploit. Whatever Google earns now is a drop in the bucket compared to its future potential.