As part of its efforts to protect user data from advertisers, Google today announced a trial of its Privacy Shield feature for some users of the Android operating system.
Around this time last year, the US tech giant announced that it was working on a multi-year plan to improve privacy and redesign ad tracking on Android phones to make the platform compatible with App Tracking Transparency (iOS). operating system) from Apple.
After throwing out an early developer preview last April, Google said in a post today that a public beta version of the Android Privacy Sandbox feature will be rolling out to a limited number of Android 13 devices starting tomorrow, allowing users and developers to select those who can actually test the new technology.
The company added that access to the public beta will expand over time and devices selected for testing will be notified to notify users of their eligibility.
Android Privacy Sandbox is a suite of tools designed to create new standards for how advertisers and websites can access consumer information without violating user privacy.
Android devices currently assign each user a reconfigurable identifier called the Android Advertising ID, which is used to track user behavior and create a personal advertising profile for use by application developers.
Privacy Sandbox aims to replace privacy-preserving APIs with advertising identifiers, which Google says will limit sharing of user data with third parties and remove identifiers across apps while still serving targeted ads.
“Privacy Sandbox beta features a new API, developed with privacy first and without the use of identifiers, to track your activity across apps and websites,” Google said. It added, "Apps that sign up for the beta can use it. The API will show you relevant ads and measure their effectiveness."
Privacy Sandbox on Android is a bit like the online Privacy Sandbox project, which aims to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by 2024.
According to Google, the two projects share the same vision of improving user privacy while supporting important business functions, but they use different technologies and are developed independently.
Users who opted in to the beta can manage how ads are targeted to their individual interests by accessing the Privacy Sandbox section of their Android settings.
For example, if you see ads for camping gear and sleeping bags, Android might assume that you're interested in outdoor topics based on your app downloads and app activity. So you may see ads that you don't want to see in the off-topic area, and you can opt-in to privacy sandbox mode or switch back to privacy sandbox mode at any time.