Have you seen these Android 12 "Reset,Delete,GetNew advertising ID" changes?

[Andy Burnelli]

I noticed on my Samsung these menus related to the Advertising ID:
Android12:Settings > Privacy > Ads
Android12:Settings > Google > Ads

Each of which points to 3 functionalities (2 of which are apparently new):
{Privacy,Google} > Ads > Reset advertising ID
{Privacy,Google} > Privacy > Ads > Delete advertising ID <== new!
{Privacy,Google} > Privacy > Ads > Get new advertising ID <== new!

I'm just curious if there is any downside to simply deleting the
advertising ID (and yes, I see Google's warning that ads won't be
"targeted" to me if I do that, which is a bonus, not a negative)?

And I'm curious if you run this adb command if you too get all zeros?
C:\> adb shell am start -n com.google.android.gms/.ads.settings.AdsSettingsActivity
<Loading Image...> Reset Ad ID to all zeros

[Andy Burns]

Android12:Settings > Privacy > Ads Android12:Settings > Google > Ads
{Privacy,Google} > Ads > Reset advertising ID
{Privacy,Google} > Privacy > Ads > Delete advertising ID <== new!
{Privacy,Google} > Privacy > Ads > Get new advertising ID <== new!

I deleted my ad ID and never noticed the difference

I'm just curious if there is any downside to simply deleting the advertising ID
(and yes, I see Google's warning that ads won't be "targeted" to me if I do
that, which is a bonus, not a negative)?
And I'm curious if you run this adb command if you too get all zeros?
C:\> adb shell am start -n com.google.android.gms/.ads.settings.AdsSettingsActivity
<https://i.postimg.cc/q77fJVdR/adid05.jpg> Reset Ad ID to all zeros

I've been looking for a 3rd party app to display the ad ID, just to double check
that it can't see anything other than zeroes

[Andy Burnelli]

Post by Andy Burns
I deleted my ad ID and never noticed the difference

I only recently upgraded to Android 12 so I didn't even know the option
existed until today for _deleting_ the advertising ID.

Post by Andy Burns
I've been looking for a 3rd party app to display the ad ID, just to double check
that it can't see anything other than zeroes

Ah. From that I only belatedly just now realized the "all zeroes" must be
what happens to everyone from deleting it, I guess, which is why I guess
you've seen all zeros too. (I had thought it was just me since I play
around with adb but most people probably do not do that.)

Anyway, I just looked at my device identifier apps to see if they show the
advertising ID as all zeroes independently of the Android Settings menus.

The first one I checked showed it to be all zeroes as you can see here:
<Loading Image...>

That was using this app (which, otherwise, isn't all that useful).
*Device Identifiers* by Umang Chamaria
Free, ad free, Google free, GSF free, rated 3.8, 5K+ installs
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.utility.identifydevice>

[John McGaw]

Android12:Settings > Privacy > Ads Android12:Settings > Google > Ads
{Privacy,Google} > Ads > Reset advertising ID
{Privacy,Google} > Privacy > Ads > Delete advertising ID <== new!
{Privacy,Google} > Privacy > Ads > Get new advertising ID <== new!
I'm just curious if there is any downside to simply deleting the
advertising ID (and yes, I see Google's warning that ads won't be
"targeted" to me if I do that, which is a bonus, not a negative)?
And I'm curious if you run this adb command if you too get all zeros?
C:\> adb shell am start -n
com.google.android.gms/.ads.settings.AdsSettingsActivity
<https://i.postimg.cc/q77fJVdR/adid05.jpg> Reset Ad ID to all zeros

Part of that must be Samsung specific. On my Pixel 6 Pro, presumably
"unadulterated" Android 12 I see: Reset, Delete and Enable debug logging.
My ID is 32 characters long, looks to be hexadecimal, and these characters
are arranged in 5 groups (8-4-4-4-12). Guess I should go ahead and delete
to see what happens...

[Andy Burns]

Post by John McGaw
Part of that must be Samsung specific. On my Pixel 6 Pro, presumably
"unadulterated" Android 12 I see: Reset, Delete and Enable debug logging.
My ID is 32 characters long, looks to be hexadecimal, and these characters are
arranged in 5 groups (8-4-4-4-12).

Standard UUID format

Post by John McGaw
Guess I should go ahead and delete to see what happens...

You'll probably get all 0s, which is what my pixel5a shows, I deleted the ad ID
almost as soon as I bought it, having deleted it, the ads settings just shows
one option to "get a new ad ID" which it says will give me more personalised
ads, no thanks.

[Andy Burnelli]

Post by Andy Burns
You'll probably get all 0s, which is what my pixel5a shows, I deleted the ad ID
almost as soon as I bought it, having deleted it, the ads settings just shows
one option to "get a new ad ID" which it says will give me more personalised
ads, no thanks.

1. I'm glad you confirmed it was all zeroes as I was thinking it might be
just me since I cleared the advertising ID using adb from Windows.

2. I'm with you - no thanks on the "personalized ads" for me too.

BTW, let me know if you ever do figure out how to tell if our 25 "project
mainline" core modules are updated.

My Java VM version is "ART 2.1.0" according to DevCheck.
Does that mean at least that one of the 25 core modules is updated?

[Mayayana]

"John McGaw" <***@Nowh.ere> wrote

| My ID is 32 characters long, looks to be hexadecimal, and these characters
| are arranged in 5 groups (8-4-4-4-12).

That's what's known as a GUID, or globally unique ID,
based on a number of factors when generated and supposedly
guaranteed to be unique for a long time to come. (Windows
has a function called CoCreateGUID for that purpose. It goes
back to Win95.)