Later this year, Google will begin offering Android users the ability to opt-out of tracking across apps on their devices, limiting the ability for apps to access their unique advertising ID. Google announced the move on a support page update (via Bloomberg).
The news comes following a similar move by Apple in iOS 14.5, which brought ATT, or the App Tracking Transparency framework. When users open an app for the first time in iOS 14.5 or higher, the app displays a prompt with the options “Ask App not to track” or “Allow.”
Google says the process will be a bit different in Android, as users won’t see a pop-up for each app, nor will they have granular controls over each individual app’s ability to access their IDFA.
Instead, a new toggle within Android settings will let users opt-out completely of all tracking, for all apps.
As part of Google Play services update in late 2021, the advertising ID will be removed when a user opts out of personalization using advertising ID in Android Settings. Any attempts to access the identifier will receive a string of zeros instead of the identifier
Google says the new change will be a part of an update to its Google Play services and will be rolled out in phases starting later this year, and “will expand to affect apps running on devices that support Google Play in early 2022.” In July, Google will provide an alternate solution to support essential use cases such as analytics and fraud prevention.
