Surveillance of users, no matter how corporations try to convince us otherwise, is carried out constantly and everywhere today. Even if the committed actions are carefully encrypted, and personal data is hashed, whatever one may say, it is still surveillance, albeit in a slightly perverted form. Indeed, in fact, companies deliberately obstruct themselves in order to obtain the necessary information was not too easy, but fundamentally this does not change anything, since the data both went to corporate servers and still leaves without the ability to do anything about it . But the Europeans decided that this could not continue.
Google monitors users and does not allow them to opt out
The European Center for Digital Rights filed a complaint with the European Commission against the actions of Google, which, according to the experts of the organization, monitors users Android, not allowing them to stop it. An advertising identifier turned out to be a tool for tracking. It is in every Android – smartphone and is a kind of mechanism that tracks the user's actions, his behavior and habits, depersonalizes them, but at the same time forms a virtual portrait of the tracked person to show him relevant advertisements.
Reset Advertising ID Android
If you go to the settings, you will see that the advertising ID can only be reset, but not deleted the data collected by it
Despite the fact that the advertising identifier can be reset using standard tools – there is a special button in Android – in fact, it does not allow the user to prohibit Google from tracking themselves in principle. That is, the data is decoupled from a specific identifier, but then accumulates again as the smartphone is used. At the same time, nothing prevents Google from comparing one with the other, because, firstly, people's habits practically do not change dramatically, and, secondly, this is, though advertising, but still surveillance. Therefore, periodic profile reset does not provide adequate protection.
Based on European legislation, Google really violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which obliges data processing companies to allow customers at any time to get acquainted with the information that is collected about them and submit an order for its deletion. Google does not provide such an opportunity to users Android, in fact, depriving them of choice and exploiting them as 'cash cows', which instead of milk provide an even more valuable resource in the 21st century – their data.
How Google is tricking you
Google claims that users can control the processing of their data, but careful research Android has shown that the operating system does not allow you to remove the advertising ID and prevent further tracking. The only thing available to users is the ability to generate a new ID to replace the existing one. But this not only does not stop tracking, but also does not delete the already accumulated data, which directly contradicts the GDPR, the experts said.
Android is a user tracking tool, but I don't see anything wrong with that
What the outcome of this case will be, of course, is too early to say. But, given that Google has already been repeatedly harassed by the European authorities, who several times convicted it of violating local laws and fined colossal amounts, it is likely that this case will not be an exception. In the end, Google really does not allow users to delete their advertising ID data and stop tracking, thus misleading users by slipping them into a mechanism to replace the ID with a new one.
On the other hand, as I understand it, this is important only from the point of view of compliance with European legislation. Because I, as a user, not only do not mind, but also ardently want companies to track my actions, movements and preferences. Because that way, they get the opportunity to provide me with a better product than it could be, and also give me relevant advertising, thanks to which I repeatedly made good purchases, just starting to search for what I needed.