Google plans to bring Privacy Sandbox to Android as it looks to limit cross-app tracking in apps

Google on February 16 announced plans to limit the sharing of user data on Android smartphones with third parties, following a similar initiative by Apple last year.

Google said it plans to introduce "new, more private advertising solutions" in the coming years as the tech giant plans to extend its Privacy Sandbox initiative to Android.

These solutions will limit sharing of user data with third parties and work without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID, said Anthony Chavez, VP-Product Management, Android Security & Privacy, Google in an official blogpost.

Advertising ID is a unique user ID assigned to a mobile device by Google Play services for advertising purposes. Google already allows users to opt out of personalised ads or interest-based advertising through Android settings.

Chavez mentioned that they are also exploring technologies that will reduce the potential for covert data collection, including better ways for apps to integrate with advertising SDKs (software development kits).

While he didn't provide any specific time for the launch of these solutions, Chavez said in the blogpost that they will support existing ads platform features for at least two years and provide "substantial notice ahead of any future changes".

Apple's iOS privacy changes

Apple had rolled out key changes to its iOS operating system last year, that forced apps to take permission from users before allowing advertisers to track them.

This has had a major impact on internet companies such as Meta, Snap Inc, and Twitter, which generates a significant portion of their revenues through targeted advertising.

On February 2, Meta CFO Dave Wehner had said during the company's earnings conference call that these changes would cost the company about $10 billion in advertising revenue this year. Subsequently, Meta erased about $251 billion in market value, the largest one-day wipeout in US corporate history.

Taking a swipe at Apple's privacy changes, Chavez said "other platforms have taken a different approach to ads privacy, bluntly restricting existing technologies used by developers and advertisers"

"We believe that — without first providing a privacy-preserving alternative path — such approaches can be ineffective and lead to worse outcomes for user privacy and developer businesses" he said.

"India's journey to becoming the largest digitally connected nation brings with it not just tremendous potential but also a great responsibility. Creating a safer internet requires the commitment of the entire industry and this initiative by Google is an important step in that direction,” said Umang Bedi, co-founder, VerSe Innovation which owns apps such as DailyHunt and Josh.

Siddhartha Roy, COO, Hungama Digital Media also said they are looking forward to the solution that will improve user privacy while at the same time taking care of the developer community's interests.

Snap Inc also said they are "excited to collaborate with Google to develop new privacy-preserving standards for Android"

Privacy Sandbox for web

This development builds on the company's ongoing efforts with the Privacy Sandbox initiative.

Introduced in 2019, the initiative aims to create web technologies that can protect privacy of users while also giving publishers, creators and other developers the requisite tools to build digital businesses.

The company had previously stated plans to phase out third-party cookies as part of this initiative. In January, it also introduced a new interest-based advertising system called Topics, which replaced its contentious FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) project. This system allows advertisers to target users on a handful of topics based on their browsing history.

At the time, Google had said that these topics are selected entirely on the user's device without involving any external servers, including Google servers. They are kept for only three weeks while old topics are deleted.

In the blogpost, Chavez said developers will be able to review the company's initial design proposals and share feedback on the Android developer site. They also plan to release developer previews over the course of the year, with a beta release by the end of the year.

"We’re also committed to working closely with regulators. We’ve offered public commitments for our Privacy Sandbox efforts on the web, including ensuring that we don’t give preferential treatment to Google's ads products or sites. We'll apply these principles to our Android work as well, and continue working with the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and others," Chavez said.