After Apple, Google joins the Ad-Wars

Android 12 makes interest-based advertising obsolete to set off an irreversible collapse in Facebook’s ad ecosystem

After Apple iOS 14.5 included the ability to stop apps from tracking your activity for ad targeting purposes, which has already led to big changes among Apple users (iOS 14.5, only 4 percent of iOS users in the U.S. let apps track them). Google announced its plans to make advertising ID an opt-out feature. Here’s an excerpt from their support page:

Starting in late 2021, when a user opts out of interest-based advertising or ads personalization, the advertising identifier will not be available. You will receive a string of zeros in place of the identifier.

Google’s advertising ID (GAID), is similar to Apple’s IDFA in the aspect that both are used to monetize off users’ interests.

Google’s opt-out ad-tracking popup isn’t on the forefront like in iOS. Instead, it’s buried deep in the Google Play Service settings — which could be difficult for users to find out.

Facebook loss from iOS 14 was in the range of $80bn, Android the more dominant platform will only increase their losses.