Amazon's "Transformer" Phone: Can It Succeed Where Fire Phone Failed? 
Reflection AI Eyes $25 Billion Valuation in Massive $2.5 Billion Funding Round 
Malaysia Semiconductor Industry Eyes Helium Supply Risks Amid Middle East Conflict 
Palantir's Maven AI Earns Pentagon "Program of Record" Status, Reshaping Military AI Strategy 
Nintendo Switch 2 Production Cut as Holiday Sales Miss Targets 
Alibaba Bets on AI Agents to Unify Its Vast Digital Ecosystem 
Apple Defies China's Smartphone Slump with Strong Early 2026 Sales 
Nanya Technology Shares Surge 10% After $2.5 Billion Private Placement from Sandisk and Cisco 
Golden Dome Missile Defense: Anduril and Palantir Join Forces on Trump's $185B Space Shield 
Trump White House Unveils National AI Policy Framework for Congress 
OpenAI Pulls the Plug on Sora, Ending $1 Billion Disney Partnership 
Micron Technology Beats Q2 Earnings Estimates, Issues Strong AI-Driven Outlook 
AMD CEO Lisa Su Heads to Samsung's South Korea Chip Facility Amid AI Expansion Talks 
SK Hynix Eyes Up to $14 Billion U.S. IPO to Fund AI Chip Expansion 
Cyberattack on Stryker Triggers U.S. Government Warning Over Microsoft Intune Security 
Microsoft Eyes Legal Action as Amazon-OpenAI Deal Threatens Azure Exclusivity 
Super Micro Computer Shares Plunge After Co-Founder Charged in AI Chip Smuggling Case 
Google is changing its policy on handling advertising IDs later this year. The new rule, which could be somewhat similar to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency, will be likely implemented along with the public release of Android 12.
A change in a Google support page was spotted Thursday where the company discreetly announces an upcoming Google Play services update that will change how advertising is conducted through Android apps. Google confirmed it is going to remove the ad ID for users who will opt-out of receiving personalized ads. Along with the update on the Play Console Help page, Financial Times (via The Verge) reported that Google had also sent an email to Play Store developers confirming the forthcoming update.
“Any attempts to access the identifier will receive a string of zeros instead of the identifier,” Google wrote. “To help developers and ad/analytics service providers with compliance efforts and respect user choice, they will be able to receive notifications for opt-out preferences.”
This is going to be a significant change compared to how Google handles ad ID. Android users have the option to opt-in and out of personalized ads by going to Settings > Google > Ads and using the toggle for Ads Personalization. But opting out does not delete or disable the designated ad ID on an Android device. So when a user chooses to opt-out, they will be notified that they will still see ads only they will not be patterned based on their interests.
Last year, Apple announced it is removing the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) along with an iOS 14 feature that allows users to opt-out of being tracked across apps and websites through the App Tracking Transparency framework. While the change did not take effect until earlier this year via iOS 14.5, it has been working so far as Apple presented it. People using iOS 14 devices use a single toggle to turn off tracking for all apps or only opt-out on specific apps.
Google previously announced it is removing third-party cookies. While the company said it will not introduce a new type of identifier for targeted ads, Google is in the processing of testing and rolling out the Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) system within the next year. Google described FLoC as an “interest-based advertising” system “by clustering large groups of people with similar interests.”
Google only said the removal of ad ID is happening “in late 2021.” Considering that is also the same timeline for the public release of Android 12, there may be more privacy focused-features in the pipeline.
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
