Google to limit data tracking on Android smartphones! Facebook's revenue will be further hurt

Google has announced that it will expand its data tracking restrictions to apps on Android smartphones, which are currently used by about 85% of smartphone users worldwide. Previously, this restriction only applied to the Chrome browser.

The policies are part of Google's "Privacy Sandbox" initiative, which aims to reduce the amount of data advertisers can collect from users, and Google has pledged to phase out third-party cookies from Chrome by 2023, the report said.

Expanding its Privacy Sandbox isn’t Google’s first attempt at building an alternative to third-party cookies, with their initial proposal leveraging FLoC to enable data protection by assigning users to groups with similar browsing histories. FLoC was unpopular with both privacy campaigners and advertisers, and was quickly replaced by Topics in January 2022.

Google detailed its decision to extend its Privacy Sandbox to Android apps in a blog post, explaining that the company is working on solutions to curb the collection and sharing of user data and operate without cross-app identifiers.

The identifiers mentioned include advertising IDs, which apps use to collect data from smartphones and which Google intends to keep while they build a new system.

When Apple released iOS 14 last year, it also updated the ad tracking specifications, which directly led to a decline in Facebook's advertising revenue. Therefore, the market believes that Google's follow-up adjustment of ad tracking permissions is undoubtedly adding insult to injury.

Editor ✎ Xiao Zhu/

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