Android launches privacy sandbox

Posted by Anthony Chavez, Vice President of Product Management, Android Security and Privacy

Mobile apps are a core part of our daily lives. Today, more than 90% of apps on Google Play are free, giving billions of users access to valuable content and services. Digital advertising plays a critical role in achieving this goal. To ensure a healthy app ecosystem that benefits users, developers, and businesses, the industry must continue to improve the way digital advertising works to enhance user privacy. That's why we initially gave users more control by developing the advertising ID. Last year, we introduced a number of improvements to privacy and security, but we firmly believe that we should keep moving forward.

Today, we announced a multi-year plan to build a privacy sandbox on Android to introduce newer, more private advertising solutions. Specifically, these solutions will limit the sharing of user information with third parties and can operate without cross-app identity, including the advertising ID. We are exploring technologies that reduce the feasibility of covert data collection, including more secure ways to complete app integration with advertising SDKs.

The Privacy Sandbox on Android builds on our existing efforts on the web and provides a clear path to improve user privacy without affecting access to free content and services.

The hard landing approach proved ineffective

We recognize that other platforms have taken different approaches to ad privacy, with hard landings that limit developers and advertisers’ use of existing technologies. We believe that such approaches may be ineffective and may have negative consequences for user privacy and developers without first providing an alternative path to privacy protection.

Our goal in building the Privacy Sandbox on Android is to develop effective and privacy-enhancing advertising solutions, so that users know their information is protected, and developers and advertisers can use this tool to benefit on mobile. While we design, build, and test these new solutions, we plan to support existing ad platform capabilities for at least two years, and we will communicate with you in advance of any future changes.

Working together with the industry

Starting today, developers can view our initial design and share feedback on the Android Developers website. We plan to release a developer preview along with the beta later this year. We will update the design and schedule regularly, and you can also sign up here to receive updates.

We know this initiative will require industry-wide commitment to succeed. We’ve heard from many of our partners that they want to work with us to improve ad privacy on Android, and we hope more organizations will join us.

At Snap, we make privacy a top priority and core to our product design, and we’re excited to be working with Google to develop new privacy standards for Android.

Snap Inc.

We support Google’s efforts to raise privacy standards on its platform and make it easier for users to understand how their data is used. We’re glad Google is engaging developers early to ensure we have enough time to respond and participate in this important change.

-Rovio

User privacy is a top priority for Duolingo, and we appreciate the deliberative process Android takes to release new solutions and solicit feedback from the ecosystem.

Duolingo

We are also committed to working closely with regulators. We have made commitments to you on the Privacy Sandbox on the web, including ensuring that we do not give preferential treatment to Google's advertising products or websites. We will also apply these principles to the Privacy Sandbox on Android, and continue to work with the UK Competition and Markets Authority and other agencies.

The Privacy Sandbox on Android is an important part of our mission to raise the bar on user privacy while giving developers and businesses the tools to succeed on mobile devices. We look forward to working with you on this journey!