Google wants ads that are more respectful of personal data

That was to be expected. For several years, Google has been struggling to develop targeted advertising technologies that are compatible with protecting privacy on the web. baptized privacy protectionAnd This initiative brings together a whole range of technologies, the latest of which is Threads, An alternative to third-party cookies, making it possible to report an Internet user’s centers of interest without being flagged in underwear.

The computer giant has now just introduced the Android version of privacy protection. In fact, things are a little different on a smartphone. In applications, advertisements to users are not analyzed by the use of cookies, but by a unique identifier associated with the station (Ad ID). Which does not really go in the direction of protecting personal data.

Google wants to get rid of this annoying tag and develop advertising solutions for it It will work without identifiers across applications, including advertising identifiers, and limit sharing of user data with third parties.As Anthony Chavez, Vice President of Security and Privacy at Android, explained in a blog post.

Concretely, the idea is to offer developers and advertisers programming interfaces that are a real alternative to the current process. Four beta APIs are available today: one for benchmarking (Attribution Report), two for target advertising (FLEDGE And Threads) and one to combat illegal tracking (SDK Runtime).

In fact, just like on the web, some ad operators use obscure technologies on smartphones to suck as much user data as possible without their consent. This bad habit is likely to increase with the increase in personal data protection. The point of SDK Runtime The goal is to better protect this data and isolate as much code as possible from third-party ad players. This API will also soon be supported by a third party dedicated to fighting against fingerprintwhich is a practice of creating unique fingerprints based on device characteristics.

First comprehensive exams in 2023

Google’s goal is to get a beta version of privacy protection By the end of 2022 and the launch of condensation tests in 2023. As for the identifier Ad IDIt should not disappear before 2024. In passing, the high-tech giant is seizing the opportunity to engage with Apple and its strategy of forced consent to the sharing of personal data in mobile applications. “Other platforms have taken a different approach to protecting the privacy of online ads, restricting the use of tools already available to developers and advertisers. In our opinion, without a privacy-friendly alternative, these methods would be ineffective or even counterproductive to data privacy and developer operations.”confirms Anthony Chavez.

It is true that this radical way of doing things from Apple has reduced the income of developers. According to the marketing agency Consumer acquisitionHowever, this loss of income would be 15-20%, a deficiency that some are trying to fill by joining the dark side of ad tracking. For its part, Google is trying to spare the goats and cabbage: it wants to protect the user without lowering the developers’ income.

But is this really possible? In any case, the US company can already count on a number of publishers supporting it in its approach, such as Rovio, Snap, Voodo or Duolingo. Everyone says they are pleased with this new strategy. But do they really have a choice? On its Android platform, Google is better able to enforce its advertising technologies than on the web, where the ecosystem is broader and the obstacles are more numerous.