• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 3, 2021

Google will change its crypto advertising policy in August, the company detailed in an update to its financial products and services webpage. It also will make changes to its ad policy for Google Play Developers, beginning toward the end of 2021, making it a lot more difficult to track consumers to target ads.

Beginning August 3, advertisers offering Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Wallets targeting consumers in the United States may advertise those products and services when they meet certain requirements.

The requirements include being certified by Google, being registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business and with at least one state as a money transmitter, or a federal or state-chartered bank entity.

The conditions also mean complying with relevant legal requirements -- including any local legal requirements, whether at a state or federal level -- and ensure ads and landing pages comply with all Google Ads policies.

“All prior Cryptocurrency Exchange certifications will be revoked on August 3, 2021,” Google wrote in a post. “Advertisers must request new Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Wallets certification with Google when the application form is published on July 8, 2021.”

The new certification process will replace one in existence for crypto exchanges since late 2018. Throughout that year, Google could not decide whether to allow certain words and ads related to cryptocurrency. At one point it had banned the word "Ethereum."

Google now will not allow advertisements for "initial coin offerings, DeFi trading protocols, or otherwise promoting the purchase, sale, or trade of cryptocurrencies or related products." Or ad destinations that aggregate or compare issuers of cryptocurrencies or related products.

Google also is changing its advertising policy for Google Play Developers, aimed at providing users with more control over their data.

As part of the update, “the advertising ID will be removed when a user opts out of personalization using advertising ID in Android Settings,” according to an email sent to Google Play Developers. “Any attempts to access the identifier will receive a string of zeros instead of the identifier.”

The phased rollout will affect apps beginning in late 2021 running on Android 12 devices, and will expand to affect apps running on devices that support Google Play in early 2022.