Google announces a plan to introduce a privacy sandbox on Android and maintain advertising IDs for two years, claiming that there is less confusion than Apple's privacy measures

On February 16, 2022, Google announced that it plans to introduce the ` ` privacy sandbox '', a cookieless user tracking function that Google has been trying to introduce to Chrome since 2019, to Android. This Android version of the privacy sandbox is said to be a `` fanged version of ATT '' because it is more appealing to advertising companies than the similar function `` App Tracking Transparency '' that Apple has introduced on the iPhone. It has been.

Introducing the Privacy Sandbox on Android
https://blog.google/products/android/introducing-privacy-sandbox-android/

Google doesn't want to pull an Apple with new ad tracking changes for Android
https://www.androidpolice.com/android-privacy-sandbox-changes-ads/

Android's toothless “Privacy Sandbox” fails to answer iOS tracking limits | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/02/androids-toothless-privacy-sandbox-fails-to-answer-ios-tracking-limits/

Google to overhaul how ad-tracking works on Android phones - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/16/google-ads-tracking-android/

For example, it is important to know 'user needs' in order to increase the effectiveness of advertising, as it is meaningless to advertise bras for men. A unique ID called an ' advertising identifier (advertising ID) ' is assigned to iPhone and Android devices, and app developers and advertisers can use this advertising ID to identify 'which in-app ad the user clicked' and 'what It was possible to track actions such as 'Did you pay for

However, in recent years, there have been strong voices that such ``user tracking'' is a violation of privacy, and Apple will allow user tracking using advertising IDs from ``iOS 14.5'' released in April 2021. Implemented a privacy enhancement system called ' App Tracking Transparency (ATT) ' that allows you to choose. As a result, the majority of iPhone users now refuse to be tracked.

The Android version privacy sandbox announced by Google on February 16, 2022 can be said to be the Android version of the above-mentioned ATT. The privacy sandbox is a system advocated by Google as an alternative to user tracking using cookies in order to abolish Chrome's ``user tracking using cookies'' in 2019.

Google declares that it will develop a mechanism that ``protects user information and does not impair the relevance of advertisements''-GIGAZINE

In today's announcement, Google revealed that it's in the very early stages of a multi-year plan, that it will be able to share feedback on its Android developer site , and that it will not abandon user tracking entirely, and that it's free. For example, we will proceed with the implementation in consideration of the advertising industry that contributes to the existence of content and free services, and we will work closely with regulatory authorities to avoid giving preferential treatment to our own products. Since there is little specific content, it is reported that it is generally ``revealing the concept''.

Regarding this announcement, media companies point out that Google is the world's largest advertising company as well as providing the Android OS, so the Android version privacy sandbox is more suitable for advertising companies than Apple's ATT. The point that it is the content that came close. As mentioned above, as a result of introducing ATT on the iPhone, the majority of users refuse to track users, but the privacy sandbox does not use cookies, but identifies it as a 'set of users' grouped by attributes. Since tracking is performed by a system called FLoC , it is said that 'personal identification is not possible, but targeting advertisement itself is possible'.

How does Google's new advertising system 'FLoC' work? |GIGAZINE.BIZ


In addition, FLoC has been criticized for its ability to identify individuals by analyzing ``sets of users'' in detail, and Google will announce a ``topic ID'' that will replace FLoC in January 2022. doing. Since the Android version privacy sandbox announced in such a flow is only an outline, it is unclear how it will be implemented specifically.

What kind of mechanism is Google throwing away the new system FLoC that was described as 'worst' and changing the policy to 'topic API'? -GIGAZINE