After Apple Inc, now Google’s parent company, Alphabet is set to introduce new privacy updates. On Wednesday, February 16, the company announced that it would be imposing new, updated restrictions on apps which share the date of users.
The data is often shared with third parties, along with some feature whose goals are to tracks users across apps and aid marketers. Marketers often need the help to target specific advertisements for users across apps,
The systematically planned updates are identical to what Apple brought forward last year. Apple had introduced similar privacy updates in its iOS mobile software system. Those changes were a source of scrutiny among marketers. It caught many of these advertisers and digital marketers off guard immediately after its implementation. These protected users from being tracked across third-party apps.
Google subtly referred to the actions of Apple this week, on a blog post. it said how other platforms (Apple) had taken different step towards privacy regarding ads, placing blunt restrictions on technologies, existing for the use of online developers and advertisers.
“We believe that—without first providing a privacy-preserving alternative path—such approaches can be ineffective and lead to worse outcomes for user privacy and developer businesses,” Google said.
Source: Forbes
Taking the subtle dig at Apple, Google clarified that it would not discontinue its support to existing digital ad features for now. They would keep the feature for the next two years in order to give the advertisers some time to make necessary changes.
Due to its update, 95% of Apple users were seen to opt out of app tracking. This sudden change cost Meta to lose about $10 billion in 2021. This is because advertising stood as one of Meta’s primary revenue generating business.
Apple and Google are know to be the dominant figures in the app market. This is through their iOS mobile and app store and, Android and its play store, respectively. Whenever these leading companies make any changes to their software systems or apps, it greatly impacts external operations. These mainly include the working of various developers and companies depending on these digital ecosystems.
The way Apple’s changes affected Facebook-parent Meta to send its market value to a drastic plunging of $200 billion. Google’s changes is likely to make a similar effect despite two-year buffer.
Google has built, for Meta’s Facebook, a considerable online business for advertisements that has greatly strengthened. This was mainly because of data of users and tracking through third-party apps. The privacy update is bound to cause drastic difficulties.
