On Tue, 02 Aug 2016 23:51:07 -0400, nospam wrote:

Apple iOS devices also have a Unique Device Identifier (UDID).

which apps cannot access and use to identify users.

It seems that Google may have copied Apple in creating the Advertising ID
in the first place, as stated in this article:
http://www.businessinsider.com/googl...ks-like-2014-1

However, apparently very much unlike the Apple Advertising ID (IDFA), it is
well known that Android users have long had the opportunity to opt out of
Advertising ID (AdID) based tracking.

Even more unlike the Apple Advertising ID (IDFA), so far, it seems that
deleting the Android Google Play account may have also deleted the entire
existence of the Advertising ID (AdID).

The first clue is that the entire concept of the Advertising ID instantly
disappeared from the Android settings menu when the Google Play account was
removed.

Another clue is this developer web page which states that the advertising
ID works only when Google Play Services is available:
https://developers.google.com/androi...tisingIdClient

This article says the Advertising ID came from Google Play Services 4.0,
which no longer exists on my phone, which implies no Advertising ID:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/11...arts-aug-2014/

This article confirms that the AdID is composed from the Google Play
account, which doesn't even exist, so it's probably not possible to
generate a valid AdID:
http://ccm.net/faq/34759-android-pre...advertising-id

Probably the strongest evidence is in this article, which pretty much says
that without Google Play Services (GPS), the advertising ID (AdID) can't be
used by applications:
https://dev.twitter.com/mopub/androi...rtising-id-faq

But, Google Play account and Google Play Services aren't the same thing.

Does anyone on the Android side actually know, for sure, that deleting the
Google Play account and/or turning off Google Play services disables the
generation or use of the Advertising ID?