Google Follows Apple to Bring Opt-Out User Setting for Mobile Advertising IDs in Android 12. Facebook Faces New Threat!

[Orcblood]

Summary

 

   

 

In unexpected news - the long time advertising rooted tech giant, Google, and the owner of the worlds largest mobile OS and consequently one of the largest advertising platform, Android, has decided to allow users in the upcoming Android 12 update to opt-out of Advertising ID's in the OS's settings. Advertising ID's, or in Android's specific case GAIDs (Google Advertising IDs), help apps, like Facebook, to track users across differing apps & platforms in order to build a profile of the user. To note though these ID's are not required to build a profile of an internet user. Facebook is able to build profiles of many who don't even have an account on Facebook or any of their direct products. However, Advertising ID's do significantly help curate a lot more data about a user as well as helps with accuracy when matching data to a user and the ease of user-data tracking in general.

 

This announcement comes well after the famous iOS 14.5 update from Apple which brought App Tracking Transparency  and marked the first move of putting this very wanted power into the user's hands. Apples implementation is better in that it pops up to the user when an app wants to use Advertising ID's (IDFA as Apple calls it). For android though this will be located somewhere in Android's system settings meaning less noticeable and more likely to go unchanged by the user. When opted out, Android will still pass an Advertising ID but it will be filled with zeros thus making it essentially useless.

 

Apple has received a lot of push back from companies such as Facebook so will be interesting to see how Google weathers this also. For instance apple had planned to release App Tracking Transparency with iOS 14.0 but delayed to 14.5 instead based on these companies response. 

 

Quotes

Quote

...the absence of a similar feature like App Tracking Transparency from Google I/O 2021 was a bummer. Gladly, though, our disappointment was short-lived.

Only yesterday, Google announced its plans to make advertising ID an opt-in feature...

 

To put it straight, Google’s advertising ID (GAID) can no longer be accessed by advertisers if the user disables it from their settings.

GAID is similar to Apple’s IDFA in the aspect that both are used to monetize off users’ interests...If their loss from iOS 14 was in the range of $80bn, Android the more dominant platform will only increase their losses and woes...

 

Google’s opt-out ad-tracking popup isn’t on the forefront like in iOS. Instead, it’s buried deep in the Google Play Service settings — which could be difficult for the non-tech savvy user to find out.

 

Regardless, the move by the search engine giant is surprising. Much like Facebook, advertisements are a major chunk of Google’s business as well.

 

Google's Announcement

Quote

Starting in late 2021, when a user opts out of interest-based advertising or ads personalization, the advertising identifier will not be available. You will receive a string of zeros in place of the identifier.

 

My thoughts

I'm both shocked and stoked that Google is doing this. Wish it was more transparent and easier for the user to be able to see & opt out of but none the less this is a very welcomed step in the right direction. Welcomed I mean by us average users of Android. Not for companies that rely on the platform's big advertising opportunity. Maybe some day it will be an opt-in feature instead of an opt-out. Doubt it but one can dream! Glad to see Facebook loosing it's invasive power. I personally do not trust Facebook with my data. Nor do I think they are an ethical company. Glad to have finally pulled the trigger and deleted my account recently. Just wish I could do it again.

 

Sources

https://thebigtech.substack.com/p/google-limits-mobile-advertising-id-android-12

 

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/3/22466531/google-android-ad-traking-advertising-identifier-id

 

https://www.engadget.com/google-android-opt-out-app-tracking-143911504.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANSdEKHKVVrVtPVYDqE0rQePjdd0Le-IB241EsLRtTCfz0NOoU58ENXK72hinUHPlkzYgYJWRhb51z0r_PWYmX0XSdEMOuhisdc0a5hNaWF1iPq5EwRTxZrr3V3Is9GBOFUNWA77H2ZOHkj6STqJPAuyHc1u2O4gAt9L0irfDMWq

 

 

Google's direct announcement:

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6048248

 

[TheReal1980]

Positive news 

[RejZoR]

It'll still be something user has to opt out on their own by climbing through garbage "Google Settings" panel which is basically just Google account settings wrapped in a terrible app. Yeah, it's totally going to affect anything (compared to Apple's enabled by default or shall I say disabled by default).

[Kisai]

29 minutes ago, Orcblood said:

 

 

My thoughts

I'm both shocked and stoked that Google is doing this. Wish it was more transparent and easier for the user to be able to see & opt out of but none the less this is a very welcomed step in the right direction. Welcomed I mean by us average users of Android. Not for companies that rely on the platform's big advertising opportunity. Maybe some day it will be an opt-in feature instead of an opt-out. Doubt it but one can dream! Glad to see Facebook loosing it's invasive power. I personally do not trust Facebook with my data. Nor do I think they are an ethical company. Glad to have finally pulled the trigger and deleted my account recently. Just wish I could do it again.

 

 

Now let's just hope Firefox and Microsoft Edge fully pull the rug out from under third-party cookie tracking entirely by making that the default setting. I doubt Chrome will do this as it will be devastating to adsense and analytics. The current level of cookie-agreement-GDPT-torture is enough to make people just block the cookies the first time they see the prompt.

 

[RejZoR]

1 minute ago, Kisai said:

Now let's just hope Firefox and Microsoft Edge fully pull the rug out from under third-party cookie tracking entirely by making that the default setting. I doubt Chrome will do this as it will be devastating to adsense and analytics. The current level of cookie-agreement-GDPT-torture is enough to make people just block the cookies the first time they see the prompt.

 

Allegedly EU is working on redesigning whole cookie laws requiring popups to be more transparent without the bullshit of digging through settings of it to disable cookie tracking.

 

Hopefully they'll integrate cookies thing into browsers, allowing users to set it to "Ask", "Allow all" and "Deny all" so you don't have to look at stupid cookie popups and it would be fulfilled by default. But we'll have to see what's up with that.

[Zodiark1593]

So, but some Facebook Puts? Got it. 

[CephDigital]

Haha get fucked Facebook

[Ashleyyyy]

it's sad that 99% of android users won't get that option as android updates are so fragmented. so until a few years pass and everyone buys newer devices, this will do basically nothing. 

[BuckGup]

Yeah I'm not buying it. Reddit, Facebook, and TikTok all track iPhones beyond that of mobile IDs. If anything this just means Google has a better way of tracking you. Or it's a move to undercut Facebook as they were encroaching on Googles revenue 

[Orcblood]

2 minutes ago, Papercut Captain said:

 

Lol right? It seems to good to be true. Must wait to see this feature released. That is if it's not just a dummy toggle

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

it's sad that 99% of android users won't get that option as android updates are so fragmented. so until a few years pass and everyone buys newer devices, this will do basically nothing. 

That's not the case anymore. 

The latest numbers I found, which are from February 2021, puts the US android distribution at:

Android 11 - 29%

Android 10 - 42%

Android 9 - 18%

 

That's to say, a couple of months ago 1 in 3 android users where on the latest version, and 2 of 5 where on the second latest. 

The numbers for Android 11 have most likely climbed since then.

 

The "Android phones don't get updates" meme needs to die. It's just not true anymore. 

 

For comparison, iOS 14.5 currently sits at about 12% install rate of iOS devices. The vast majority of iOS users are not on the latest update. They are one or several updates behind. 

[Ashleyyyy]

6 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

That's not the case anymore. 

The latest numbers I found, which are from February 2021, puts the US android distribution at:

Android 11 - 29%

Android 10 - 42%

Android 9 - 18%

android 10 is already 2 versions old now lmfao

 

 

6 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

For comparison, iOS 14.5 currently sits at about 12% install rate of iOS devices. The vast majority of iOS users are not on the latest update. They are one or several updates behind. 

dot updates don't count. when you look at install rate you look at the version. iOS only automatically updates if the phone is on wifi plugged in in the middle of the night. a lot of people don't charge overnight and therefore the phone won't immediately update itself. 

 

 

according to this from 4 months ago iOS 14 was at 80% on all active iphones. 

[Mark Kaine]

Since its google… whats the catch?

[LAwLz]

7 hours ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

android 10 is already 2 versions old now lmfao

No its not. Are you seriously counting Android 12 as released when it's only been out in beta form for like a month? 

Android 11 is the current stable released. 

Android 10 is one update behind. 

 

More than half of US Android users are one version behind or newer. 

 

 

7 hours ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

dot updates don't count. 

Why not? We're talking about a feature that's somewhat similar to the feature Apple released in 14.5. All users who are on iOS 14.4 don't have the feature. So why not count "dot updates"? Because it makes Apple look bad? 

[Spindel]

7 hours ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

android 10 is already 2 versions old now lmfao

 

 

dot updates don't count. when you look at install rate you look at the version. iOS only automatically updates if the phone is on wifi plugged in in the middle of the night. a lot of people don't charge overnight and therefore the phone won't immediately update itself. 

 

 

according to this from 4 months ago iOS 14 was at 80% on all active iphones. 

In @LAwLz defence he was specifically talking about 14.5 version. My guess is both is correct 80 % are within last major upgrade (14.X) but only a small percentage has the few latest minor updates (in example 14.5, 14.6 etc).

 

EDIT:// Just because I made this post I noticed I'm still only at 14.5 and haven't updated to 14.6

[LAwLz]

1 minute ago, Spindel said:

In @LAwLz defence he was specifically talking about 14.5 version. My guess is both is correct 80 % are within last major upgrade (14.X) but only a small percentage has the few latest minor updates (in example 14.5, 14.6 etc).

Exactly. And the reason why I specifically talks about 14.5 is because that's the update that introduced Apple's ad ID tracking. 

 

If you're going to act smug and go "well let's see how many Android users will get this update!" maybe you should look at how many iOS users have the equivalent iOS update. 

[Roswell]

 

8 hours ago, LAwLz said:

For comparison, iOS 14.5 currently sits at about 12% install rate of iOS devices. The vast majority of iOS users are not on the latest update. They are one or several updates behind. 

 

I don't think that's true. Historically, iOS update adoption stats are around 65% in 3 weeks. Usually something like 75% a few more weeks later. Apple says over 80% of iOS devices are on 14.x. The phones just automatically update while plugged in overnight unless people go in and manually disable the feature.

 

I don't think Android ever even gets close to 80% adoption rates.

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

On the same day I was listening to this...

 

[LAwLz]

16 minutes ago, Roswell said:

I don't think that's true. Historically, iOS update adoption stats are around 65% in 3 weeks. Usually something like 75% a few more weeks later. Apple says over 80% of iOS devices are on 14.x. The phones just automatically update while plugged in overnight unless people go in and manually disable the feature.

 

I don't think Android ever even gets close to 80% adoption rates.

My numbers are from here:

Mobile & Tablet iOS Version Market Share Worldwide | StatCounter Global Stats

According to that, most devices are on 14.4. Of course, they will get 14.5 eventually but as of today, only a rather small minority have installed the latest update.

 

In any case, the situation isn't nearly as bad on Android as people believe. Many vendors now provide several years of updates, for example Samsung provides at least 3 major updates and 5 years of security updates.

Android numbers are typically skewed because of super cheapo or second hand phones used in markets like China, India and Africa. If we look at first world markets then, as I said, 1/3 of Android users are on the latest update, and over 70% of users were only 1 update behind (or newer).

[RejZoR]

4 minutes ago, James Evens said:

Won't happen. People supposed that the GDPPR requires a simple 1 click no to tracking but reality is something else. So it will continue: a.) just ignoring the law b.) paying lawyers to find a backdoor c.) making sure there is a backdoor by lobbying.

 

Also isn't it ironical that google implements such a setting? a company which heavily relies on tracking. Without doing some reading on it it could be just some compromise to avoid politics passing an actual laws requiring a "worse" (for google) implementation of this feature.

Thing is, the way it was set, everyone just bent rules around it while not breaking it. Now they'll readjust the law to this bending pile of crap.

[Roswell]

5 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

My numbers are from here:

Mobile & Tablet iOS Version Market Share Worldwide | StatCounter Global Stats

According to that, most devices are on 14.4. Of course, they will get 14.5 eventually but as of today, only a rather small minority have installed the latest update.

 

In any case, the situation isn't nearly as bad on Android as people believe. Many vendors now provide several years of updates, for example Samsung provides at least 3 major updates and 5 years of security updates.

Android numbers are typically skewed because of super cheapo or second hand phones used in markets like China, India and Africa. If we look at first world markets then, as I said, 1/3 of Android users are on the latest update, and over 70% of users were only 1 update behind (or newer).

Meant to link this in my reply, I guess I forgot: https://www.flurry.com/blog/ios-14-5-app-tracking-transparency-idfa-release-adoption-upgrade-apple-users/

 

That's analytic data from past 14.x releases from a pool of 2 billion mobile users. So unless Apple decides to stagger the rollout, which is rare, it's already past that 65% number. The only way it isn't is if hundreds of millions of people randomly went into their settings in the month of April and disabled updates.

[Ashleyyyy]

2 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Why not? We're talking about a feature that's somewhat similar to the feature Apple released in 14.5. All users who are on iOS 14.4 don't have the feature. So why not count "dot updates"? Because it makes Apple look bad? 

2 hours ago, Spindel said:

In @LAwLz defence he was specifically talking about 14.5 version. My guess is both is correct 80 % are within last major upgrade (14.X) but only a small percentage has the few latest minor updates (in example 14.5, 14.6 etc).

 

EDIT:// Just because I made this post I noticed I'm still only at 14.5 and haven't updated to 14.6

 

i don't count them as the update mechanism is different. when a new iOS release is out an iphone will prompt you for the update. it won't with dot releases, it leaves that up to automatic updates. which again, it only does if it's connected to wifi, plugged in and in the middle of the night. not all iphones meet those conditions as soon as an update is out. 

[LAwLz]

2 hours ago, Roswell said:

Meant to link this in my reply, I guess I forgot: https://www.flurry.com/blog/ios-14-5-app-tracking-transparency-idfa-release-adoption-upgrade-apple-users/

 

That's analytic data from past 14.x releases from a pool of 2 billion mobile users. So unless Apple decides to stagger the rollout, which is rare, it's already past that 65% number. The only way it isn't is if hundreds of millions of people randomly went into their settings in the month of April and disabled updates.

Well the data I quoted was collected from last month so maybe you're right. I wouldn't be surprised if the 14.5 numbers are either higher now or at the very least are growing rapidly.

 

31 minutes ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

i don't count them as the update mechanism is different. when a new iOS release is out an iphone will prompt you for the update. it won't with dot releases, it leaves that up to automatic updates. which again, it only does if it's connected to wifi, plugged in and in the middle of the night. not all iphones meet those conditions as soon as an update is out. 

And what's your point?

Sounds to me like you're just trying to come up with reasons to justify the stats but facts are facts. No matter what excuse you comes up with the numbers don't lie.

Me saying "the update process is more complicated on Android so therefore it takes longer for the updates to roll out" would be an equally empty argument. You're not making arguments, you're making excuses.

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, James Evens said:

Also isn't it ironical that google implements such a setting? a company which heavily relies on tracking. Without doing some reading on it it could be just some compromise to avoid politics passing an actual laws requiring a "worse" (for google) implementation of this feature.

Also what happens with "FLoC" which was specifically designed to get around the laws apparently , will that also be deactivated when users "opt out"?  I remain doubtful.

[Delicieuxz]

16 hours ago, Orcblood said:

I'm both shocked and stoked that Google is doing this. Wish it was more transparent and easier for the user to be able to see & opt out of but none the less this is a very welcomed step in the right direction. Welcomed I mean by us average users of Android. Not for companies that rely on the platform's big advertising opportunity. Maybe some day it will be an opt-in feature instead of an opt-out. Doubt it but one can dream! Glad to see Facebook loosing it's invasive power. I personally do not trust Facebook with my data. Nor do I think they are an ethical company. Glad to have finally pulled the trigger and deleted my account recently. Just wish I could do it again.

 

13 hours ago, BuckGup said:

Yeah I'm not buying it. Reddit, Facebook, and TikTok all track iPhones beyond that of mobile IDs. If anything this just means Google has a better way of tracking you. Or it's a move to undercut Facebook as they were encroaching on Googles revenue 

 

9 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Since its google… whats the catch?

 

The catch is that Google has a new method of gathering data on people and categorizing and profiling them based on their interests using on-device processing (which I guess means more processing overhead for device owners), which doesn't rely on device IDs, and which has been speculated to make 3rd-parties more dependent upon Google's own services

 

 

 

On 3/3/2021 at 4:14 PM, Delicieuxz said:

The Google press release doesn't say that Google will stop personalizing ads, but that they have methods to deliver personalized ads without using individual identifiers. As Google's press release says, they have developed alternative methods which are comparatively effective at delivering targeted advertising as tracking. In order to be able to deliver targeted ads, they still have to know something about the activities of the person browsing a website. How do they do that?

 

Google's press release also stresses aggregation and anonymization of data. So, there's still data based on people's activities. And it's been said that any anonymous data can be de-anonymized.

 

Full disclosure and examination of whatever new methods Google plans to rely on is needed. In the end, it might not be all that different for internet browsers. But it sounds to me like Google's idea is to offload more of the processing and anonymization of the data onto users' devices, so that when the data is sent to Google, it is already anonymous - but that the same data-harvesting will be occurring.

 

Quote

"Advances in aggregation, anonymization, on-device processing and other privacy-preserving technologies offer a clear path to replacing individual identifiers"

 

It sounds like Google specifically mentions doing the data-processing and anonymizing on people's devices, which would mean people's device performance suffers and that there could be storages of data which hackers, including government ones [2] [3], could exploit. Maybe a virus could be made that causes devices to perpetually send data not just to Google, but to other sources - and maybe without the data being anonymized.

 

 

Unilateral and discrete data-harvesting is fundamentally an immoral and already-criminal (if people would just wake-up and realize it) business that is built upon the theft of what is other people's property, for the purpose of preying on and manipulating people through dirty covert deals with 3rd-parties (including governments, police, advertisers, etc).

 

Corporations using your devices to process data which they then send to themselves for commercial purposes would be like you running a Bitcoin-mining operation on their systems without permission. It is still theft of the use of your devices, your hosting of your devices, your electricity, the product of your personal activity (which belongs to you).