Google has announced a new multi-year initiative called Privacy Sandbox on Android that will aim at improving user privacy in the digital advertising industry. The initiative will work towards building solutions that will enhance user privacy on Android, while providing developers and businesses the necessary tools to thrive in the industry.
The poor protections around user privacy in the advertising industry has become a major problem in recent years. Regulators and governments around the world have been increasing the pressure on big tech companies to come up with solutions for this issue. Apple, for their part, introduced App Tracking Transparency on iOS that gave users the option to disable cross-app tracking.
While Google did not immediately follow up with their own version on Android, it is great to see them finally introduce the solution now. Privacy Sandbox will aim at limiting sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID. The solutions will also try to reduce the potential for covert data collection and introduce safer ways for apps to integrate with advertising SDKs.
To start with, Google is allowing developers to review their initial design proposals in Privacy Sandbox, and developers can provide feedback on the Android developer site. The company will release developer previews over the course of the year, with a beta release by the end of the year.