Get your business ready
Read case studies from companies helping to shape the future of online privacy, or learn more about the Privacy Sandbox technologies in our developer documentation.
Privacy Sandbox on Android
Privacy Sandbox will introduce new technology that operates without cross-app
identifiers – including
Advertising ID.
Advertising ID
A unique, user-resettable ID for advertising. This helps apps remain free through ads while your data stays protected.
Privacy
Sandbox also aims to limit covert tracking and collection of user data,
including safer ways for apps to integrate with third-party developers.
The Privacy Sandbox Proposals on Android
Topics
Topics are recognizable categories that are inferred based on the apps you use. Apps and advertising platforms can use them to decide what ads may be relevant to you. Topics are selected entirely on your device, so the information about the apps you use isn’t shared with external parties. You will be able to see and control your topics in your device settings.
Protected Audience API
Protected Audience API introduces a new way to show ads based on "custom audiences" defined by app developers and the previous interactions within their app. This information and associated ads are stored locally, so that no individual identifiers are shared with external parties. This enables remarketing for businesses to their existing customer base in a privacy-safe way.
Attribution Reporting
Today, marketers rely on cross-app or device identifiers, such as Advertising ID, to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising. The Attribution Reporting APIs aim to replace the current methods of measurement with solutions that don’t rely on user-level tracking mechanisms, so that people’s information is better protected.
SDK Runtime
The SDK (Software Development Kit) Runtime will provide an isolated process for third-party advertising code to run separately from an app’s code. This will limit the app and user data that third-party advertising providers have access to, providing greater security and privacy protection for users.
Frequently Asked Questions
The web and mobile apps rely on fundamentally different technologies, but there are similarities in the ways advertising supports the web ecosystem and the ecosystem of free apps. The Privacy Sandbox on Android and for the Web share a common vision of enhancing user privacy while supporting key business capabilities on mobile and web platforms, respectively.
The goal is to develop effective solutions that don't need device level identifiers and limit user-level tracking across different developers' apps. When we announced Privacy Sandbox on Android in February 2022, we explained that Android had no plans to make changes to Advertising ID's primary use cases for at least two years, and that we would provide substantial notice ahead of any future changes.
The development, testing, and adoption of these technologies is expected to span at least two years and Google will share more details as they are available.
Google invites members from the industry—app publishers and developers, ad tech companies, and advertisers—to participate in the development and testing of the proposed new technologies. Feedback on the design proposals can be given directly via the Google for developers website. This is also where you can sign up for regular updates as the project progresses.
The Privacy Sandbox teams are currently evaluating this area, and have developed a proposal on how to support app-to-web and web-to-app measurement using the Attribution Reporting API. No other approach has been finalized yet and we welcome feedback and partnership on this topic.