Apple and Google’s privacy decisions help ad firms recover amid the pandemic

Moves by Apple and Google that make it harder for brands to track billions of consumers are creating a money-making opportunity for advertising companies that were hit hard by the pandemic.

Google is phasing out third-party online tracking cookies and Apple is requiring app owners to ask for explicit permission to track users across other companies’ apps. The changes make it harder for companies to follow our every move online, so marketers are devising new ways for brands to find out what consumers are doing and pitch products to them.

It won’t threaten the tech giants’ status as gatekeepers to billions of consumers, a role that’s only growing as more economic activity shifts online.