google apple tracking meta
12 months ago
Published February 16, 2022 by

Google sees the light, follows Apple lead

From the Wall Street Journal's "Google Plans to Curtail Cross-App Tracking on Android Phones" posted Wednesday:

Google plans to adopt new privacy restrictions to curtail tracking across apps on Android smartphones, following Apple Inc. in putting restraints on an advertising industry that has covertly collected data across billions of mobile devices.

Google’s plans for Android could hasten an end to more than a decade of advertising practices across smartphones in which companies including Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook layered their code into hundreds of thousands of apps to track consumer behavior.

Apple’s changes, which went into effect last year, have already upended the digital-ad industry and contributed to a wipeout of more than $300 billion from Meta’s market value...

The Alphabet Inc. unit said it plans to keep supporting current smartphone identifiers for at least the next two years and to give the industry substantial notice before any changes. It said it plans to work with the industry to develop the replacements.

My take: A one-two punch to Meta's business model.

7 Comments

  1. Jerry Doyle said:
    I am confident of capitalists’ resourcefulness for finding new, unique and innovative methods for delivering specific targeted advertisements to consumers without the intrusiveness of gathering personal data at the level sustained previously. Sometimes it takes an extraneous catalyst to force change when the call for such goes unheeded. In the end, Meta and all the others will find a suitable alternative and life moves forward for all of us. It just took Apple to get the ball rolling. 🙂

    1
    February 16, 2022
  2. Fred Stein said:
    Being nit-picky, but…

    Is it “adopting new privacy restrictions” or is it enabling user choice or is it protecting users from predators?

    Just my view, Apple and Google have an obligation to protect consumers. For over a century, we have thousands of laws, regulations, holding corporations and individuals liable for harm because they neglected public safety.

    2
    February 16, 2022
    • Robert Stack said:
      Amen Fred – even though I am not religious! 🙂

      0
      February 16, 2022
  3. Daniel Epstein said:
    Sounds like plenty of warning from Google so Apple will have basically a three year head start even if Google stays on schedule. Not exactly a 1 2 punch. Apple punched Facebook’s model in the the Third round and Google is going to take a swing at it in the Sixth round.

    2
    February 16, 2022
  4. David Emery said:
    Now it will not surprise me to see Meta/F-book challenge both Apple and Google on anti-trust concerns, alleging these mechanisms basically tilt the playing field to the express benefit of Apple (on iOS, MacOS) and Google (on Android, Chromebooks). And I suspect there’s both legal and moral validity to part of that argument. Thus both Apple and Google will need to be very careful as long as they sell advertising to ensure they are not improperly prospering from their respective “monopolies”/closed ecosystems.

    (As I’ve mentioned before, I found Apple’s own advertising on News to be sufficiently annoying that I no longer use that app.)

    0
    February 16, 2022
    • Kirk DeBernardi said:
      David E. —

      Really? I get very few ads throughout Apple’s News+.

      Easily disregarded and avoided.

      0
      February 17, 2022
  5. Kirk DeBernardi said:
    Odd how Zuckie-Boy’s desire to “connect the world” suffers a gut-punch when its nefarious main modus-operandi for income is compromised.

    A warped and swarmy business model from the get-go.

    3
    February 17, 2022

Leave a Reply