Google Plans Privacy Changes Similar to the Apple Policy that Cost Facebook Billions

Google announced this week that it’s planning to introduce new privacy restrictions that will reduce app tracking across its Android devices, similar to the system implemented by Apple that contributed to Facebook’s historic drop in market value due to its impact on Mark Zuckerberg’s invasive targeted advertising. Although Facebook has publicly fought a war of words with Apple over its privacy measures, it is publicly supporting Google’s change.

CNBC reports that Google announced this week that it will be adopting new privacy restrictions that will reduce tracking across apps on its Android devices. The move is similar to the App Tracking Transparency feature introduced by Apple which prevented apps like Facebook from tracking users across other apps and websites, resulting in a major blow to Facebook’s advertising business.

Google is reportedly developing a new privacy-focused replacement for its advertising ID which is a unique string of numbers and letters that identify a user’s device. These digital IDs are often used by ad-tech companies to track users’ habits and build profiles on them for targeted advertising.

The change could impact major companies that rely on tracking users across apps, like Facebook. Apple’s introduction of App Tracking Transparency resulted in the company’s advertising sales falling by around $10 billion, contributing to the $232 billion that was recently wiped from the company’s market cap in a single day. – READ MORE