It’s still early days, but Apple’s new iOS tracking restrictions certainly seem to be causing headaches for the Internet advertising industry. Last week, Google told partners to expect a “significant impact” on ad revenue, while Facebook launched a total war against Apple’s tracking initiative and is considering legal action. Now, a new report from Bloomberg states that Google, the world’s largest Internet advertising company … wants to do something similar on Android?
The report says that “the search giant is discussing how it can limit data collection and tracking between applications on the Android operating system in a less rigorous way than Apple’s solution”. This “less stringent” solution will be made after “seeking information” from stakeholders, over whom Google’s ad division is likely to have a big influence.
Quoting “knowledgeable people,” Bloomberg says the feature “will not require a request to activate data tracking like Apple’s” and that “to keep advertisers happy while improving privacy, discussions around the Android solution. from Google indicate that this may be similar to planned changes to the Chrome browser. “Bloomberg also warns that the idea is in the early stages and may not even happen.
The changes in the Chrome browser refer to Google’s plans for a “privacy sandbox” in Chrome that would eliminate third-party cookies, a primary method that advertisers use to track users on the web. Chrome wants to replace tracking cookies with a solution that would use machine learning to group people into various ad interest categories, instead of tracking and sharing an individual’s specific web history. As with Android, the Chrome solution is a reaction to Apple’s more aggressive controls over ad cookies in 2017. Chrome’s tracking plan is a work in progress that won’t be released for at least another year.
It seems counterintuitive for one of the world’s largest advertising companies to push for features in Chrome and Android that can hurt the advertising industry. With Apple’s regular privacy fanfare, however, it is possible that Google sees self-regulation as a shield against external regulation, which would certainly be more difficult than any restrictions it may present itself. Instead of taking the report down, a Google spokesman told Bloomberg: “We are always looking for ways to work with developers to increase privacy while enabling a healthy, ad-supported app ecosystem”