Google wants to limit advertising targeting on Android

The objective is to prevent the free flow of individual information about users. Changes will not be effective before two years, and Google hopes to manage the advertising giants.

with AFP (with AFP)

Google, according to Apple’s example, wants to rethink its advertising targeting system on phones and tablets running under its operating system, Android. The objective is to limit the sharing of information harvested on users between companies in the sector. Any decision in this area will have significant effects, as approximately 70% of smartphones and tablets in the world work with Android.

In a published message On its blog, February 16 , Google specifies that” the sector must continue to change the operation of digital advertising to improve the confidentiality “claimed by users and regulators. The difficulty of finding a balance between this objective and the need to allow advertisers to finely targeting their large-scale advertisements.

Apple has already embarked on this way for all its smartphones and tablets, forcing mobile application editors to ask users if they agreed that personal information collected about them are shared with other companies For advertising purposes, for example between a clothing merchant and a social network. The objective objective is to better respect the confidentiality of the user data.

Attack against Apple

These developments are affecting certain companies living advertising, which can no longer sell ads as targeted than before. According to Google, Apple has limited “brutally technologies used by developers and advertisers”, and its approach “is not effective”. Always according to Google, in the absence of an alternative provided to advertisers, these could turn to More discreet tracking solutions , which ultimately,” would hurt more about the confidentiality of users “.

The group ensures that it will continue to offer advertising tools currently on its platform “for at least two years”, the time to design and test new ones. Deadline that will undoubtedly be lengthened before these changes affect the majority of users, as new android versions can take a long time to reach most smartphones. Google promises to consult developers like regulators, and regularly share the progress of its work.

Depending on the Rob Ender Independent Analyst, “The less advertisers can monitor what users do, the less value they retrieve, and the less they are willing to pay for the data”. Google, most of which comes from advertising, could, however, be less affected by the scarcity of individual data than other actors in the digital advertising sector. According to Mr Enderle, the group could a priori always draw on the particularly vast database he has at his disposal, with, for example, the information recovered when Internet users use his search engine or connect to some of his services, as Google Maps.

The end of the “cookies” repulsed

The company had already announced at the beginning of 2020 to want, within two years, to eliminate from its chrome browser the “cookies” of the websites, these small electronic identification modules that follow the Internet users in their web navigation to better target advertising. But the group had to push back its calendar to better take into account the returns of the various actors of the sector.

He also had to engage with the British Competition Authority, who feared that Google strengthens its control on the market, not to promote its own advertising services when third party cookies will be eliminated.

/Media reports.