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A comment on How Google tracks Android device users before they've even opened an app.

Re:How Google tracks Android device users before they've eve... by rany_ on Tuesday March 04, 2025 @08:42AM (#43254437)
> Another tracker which cannot be removed once created is the Google Android ID, a device identifier that's linked to a user's Google account and created after the first connection made to the device by Google Play Services.

The Android ID isn't actually unique anymore. Every app you install will see a different Android ID. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/04/changes-to...

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Re:How Google tracks Android device users before they've eve... by taneq on Tuesday March 04, 2025 @10:26AM (#43255884)
That stops apps tracking you, it doesn't stop Google tracking you.
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Re:How Google tracks Android device users before they've eve... by croes on Tuesday March 04, 2025 @11:32AM (#43256895)
A new ID for every app doesn’t mean it’s not unique.
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Re:How Google tracks Android device users before they've eve... by rany_ on Tuesday March 04, 2025 @03:26PM (#43259480)
Yes, the ID is unique per-app+user BUT the ID would then be useless for tracking you across apps. It is no different from the app itself creating a random ID and saving it.
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Re:How Google tracks Android device users before they've eve... by soperj on Tuesday March 04, 2025 @11:02AM (#43256430)
What if you have multiple google accounts?
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Re:How Google tracks Android device users before they've eve... by gruez on Tuesday March 04, 2025 @03:51PM (#43259689)
It's stored on a per-user basis. Note "user" refers to the operating system user, not the logged in google account.

>In versions of the platform lower than Android 8.0 (API level 26), a 64-bit number (expressed as a hexadecimal string) that is randomly generated when the user first sets up the device and should remain constant for the lifetime of the user's device. On devices that have multiple users, each user appears as a completely separate device, so the ANDROID_ID value is unique to each user.

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/Set...

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