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Google is considering developing an Android alternative to Apple’s upcoming App Tracking Transparency, a new planned subscription requirement that the iPhone maker will impose on developers requiring them to ask for permission to track iOS users on apps and websites. The news, first reported Thursday by Bloomberg, underscores the growing pressure on large technology companies, many driven by Apple, to take more proactive measures to better protect user privacy.
Google won’t say if it’s really working on an anti-tracking privacy measure for Android. But in a statement, a Google spokesperson says The edge, “We are always looking for ways to work with developers to raise the level of privacy while enabling a healthy and ad-supported application ecosystem.”
First announced at Apple’s developer conference last summer, App Tracking Transparency effectively slides a system-level choice between an app’s tracking capabilities and a user’s preferences. If the user says they would rather not be tracked, there is nothing the developer can do to avoid it because Apple will disable a developer’s ability to collect the so-called Advertiser Identifier or IDFA code. That code allows advertisers to track users from one app or website to another for ad targeting and at the same time helps advertisers measure the effectiveness of ads, for example if a user ends up buying a product you viewed in an app using the merchant’s mobile website. .
Apple intends to monitor developers through audits and other methods to enforce its policies, including the ability to suspend or ban apps from the App Store if a developer does not comply. Both Facebook and Google have publicly raised concerns about how Apple’s participation requirement could negatively affect their mobile ad networks. But Facebook has gone one step further and started waging a public relations war against Apple for change by complaining that it will hurt small businesses and accusing Apple of being selfish.
Google’s opinion on app tracking transparency is probably not so harsh, Bloomberg reports. Rather than imposing voluntary subscription requirements on app developers, the Android alternative may look like some of the upcoming privacy controls planned for Google’s Chrome browser, in which the company seeks to do away with some of the tracking technologies. more insidious of the current web by developing less invasive technologies. alternatives and offering users more opt-out mechanisms.
Google’s work to develop new privacy standards and practices for the web is known as the Privacy Sandbox. As part of that ongoing project, Google has taken steps to remove third-party cookies in Chrome and is working on tools that allow advertisers to target groups of users rather than directly to individuals. All this could inform how Google develops an anti-tracking measure for Android, Bloomberg reports.
