Google Tests Its ‘Privacy Sandbox’ App Tracking Alternative on Android Phones

It’s only in beta, but Google’s alternative to mobile app tracking on Android smartphones is now rolling out(Opens in a new window) for a “small percentage” of devices on Android 13. 

The approach is designed to address how advertisers can use covert forms of tracking, along with the advertising ID on an Android phone, to track what apps and sites you’re visiting. Google’s system taps on-device processing to determine a few topics you’re interested in based on your browsing history and then feeds them to advertising networks, thus reducing the data collected.  

The news is part of Google’s Privacy Sandbox, a company effort to better protect users’ privacy while keeping the company’s ad-targeting business model intact. “The Privacy Sandbox Beta provides new APIs that are designed with privacy at the core, and don’t use identifiers that can track your activity across apps and websites,” Google said in its announcement.

Those enrolled in the Privacy Sandbox on Android will be able to go into the OS’ settings to customize the experience. “For example, you could see that Android has estimated that you’re interested in topics like Movies or Outdoors, and you can block any topics if they don’t fit your interests. And if you change your mind about participating in the Beta, you can turn it off or back on in Settings,” the company added. 

(Credit: Google)

For now, the privacy sandbox on Android is voluntary for app makers. The intent is to give the advertising industry a chance to try out the system. However, it also means advertisers and app developers can continue to use existing data-tracking approaches on Android. 

Rival Apple has already instituted stricter data-tracking requirements on iOS. Google argues this “blunt” approach can still fail to protect users’ privacy by unleashing more covert forms of app and data tracking. But for now, Google has yet to make the privacy sandbox mandatory.

The tech giant only plans on phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024. When Google will also dump and restrict the old app-tracking methods remains unclear. But a year ago, the company noted(Opens in a new window): “While we design, build, and test these new solutions, we plan to support existing ads platform features for at least two years, and we intend to provide substantial notice ahead of any future changes.”

In the meantime, Google says it’ll notify users if they have access to the privacy sandbox on Android through a notification on their smartphone. It then plans on rolling out the privacy sandbox to more users in the future.