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androidadmobgoogle-play-servicesprivacy

Does initializing AdMob in an app start any kind of user tracking?

I currently have

MobileAds.initialize(getApplicationContext(), "ca-app-pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXX");

in my application class and I'm wondering if this alone without loading any ads initiates any kind of tracking or data collection on users. I ask this in case it may present privacy issues for the ad-free version of the app.

Solution

  • Any kind of tracking or data collection on users ?

    No

    Then :)

    What does MobileAds.initialize(context, appCode) do ?

    The Mobile Ads SDK take a few milliseconds to initialize itself, so provided this method to call it way before you even call your first ad. Once that is done, there would not be any added load time for your first request. If you do not call this, then your very first AdRequest would take a few milliseconds more as it first needs to initialize itself.