Google has announced intentions to protect Android user privacy with a new effort that would stop cross-app tracking on Android over the next two years, making it more difficult for marketers to monitor users across other applications.
Google unveiled a multi-year effort called "Privacy Sandbox" that would deliver "more private advertising alternatives" for mobile applications in a blog post. The Privacy Sandbox's cornerstone will limit data exchanged with other third-party applications, making it more difficult for marketers to develop a profile of users for targeted advertising objectives.
We're launching today a multi-year plan to establish the Android Privacy Sandbox, with the objective of delivering new, more private advertising alternatives. These solutions, in particular, will limit the sharing of user data with third parties and will not employ cross-app identifiers, such as advertising ID.
The new project will be akin to Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework (ATT), which debuted with iOS 14.5 last year. Unlike Apple's ATT, which requires all applications to obtain user approval before tracking them across other apps and websites, Google's Privacy Sandbox will limit app capabilities as a default while simultaneously exploring new privacy-preserving techniques to enable mobile advertising.
In announcing Privacy Sandbox today, Google appears to be taking aim at Apple's ATT framework, claiming that "blank approaches are proving ineffective" and that "other platforms have taken a different approach to ad privacy, bluntly restricting existing technologies used by developers and advertisers." The purpose of Privacy Sandbox is for "users to know that their information is secure, and developers and companies to have the tools they need to flourish on mobile."
On iOS 14.5 and later, Apple's ATT prompt is displayed to all users when a programme is opened for the first time.
Soon after Apple revealed ATT and following its release with iOS 14.5 last year, Facebook, now called Meta, expressed its discontent with the new requirement, citing concerns that it would have a substantial impact on its advertising business. Its concerns appear to have come true, with the social networking behemoth claiming that ATT would lose it $10 billion in sales this year.
Snapchat, which had previously stated that ATT posed a "risk" to its business, said in a statement that it is "eager to engage with Google to establish new privacy-preserving standards for Android." Google stated that it will solicit feedback from the whole sector.
