Google has started letting Android developers kick the tires of what is purported to be a reboot of ad targeting — announcing the launch of the first beta of the “Privacy Sandbox.” This is an ad tech stack proposal that aims to iterate on how ads are tracked, targeted, and reported. It doesn’t look creepy to individual users, while retaining the interest-based behavioral targeting capabilities of web users’ eyeballs.
Starting today, a “small percentage” of eligible Android 13 devices will be enrolled in beta trials as the ad tech giant begins a gradual (but says global) rollout of the beta. This will “grow over time”. (Guidance for developers on participating in the beta is available here.)
Ad partners in the trial include TechCrunch parent company Yahoo, mobile game maker Rovio, mobility company Wolt, cross-platform game engine Unity, mobile marketing platform AppsFlyer, InMobi Exchange and Adjust.
“If your device is selected for beta, you will receive an Android notification,” Google added in the blog post. This means that Android users are opted in to experimental interest-based ad targeting (and actively opt out if they don’t want their eyeballs to be guinea pigs).
When I asked for confirmation about this opt-in point, Google said that Android users The European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom are invited to participate in the program voluntarily by opt-in.
This suggests that the user is opted in somewhere in the world. This means that if you do not want to participate in interest-based advertising testing, you must manually opt out.
Way back in 2019, when Google announced its so-called “privacy sandbox” proposal, it sought to reduce the negative impact of ad tracking on the privacy of individual web users (or to prevent its businesses from being subject to privacy backlash). in order to About desktop-based Chrome browsers and deprecation of third-party tracking cookies on the web. However, a year ago we announced our intention to extend our sandbox approach to Android. And today you can try out (and provide feedback) what the first his Android developer built.
“The Privacy Sandbox Beta provides new APIs designed around privacy and does not use identifiers that can track your activity on apps and websites. You can use our API to show relevant ads and measure their effectiveness,” Google’s Anthony Chavez explains in a blog post.
The exact number of Android users exposed to experimental ad targeting is unknown. Or where in the world these users are. Alternatively, the percentage that is asked for affirmative consent to participate in the trial and the percentage that is opted in and must opt out via settings if they do not wish to participate.
In Chavez’s blog post, Android users “Go to the Privacy Sandbox section of Settings to control Beta Participation. The screen, he says, allows users to “see and manage” ad interests that participating apps can use to display “relevant ads.” tracking-based marketing.
“For example, you can see Android infers that you’re interested in topics such as movies or the outdoors. You can block topics that don’t interest you,” he wrote. If you are interested in participating in the beta,[設定]can be turned off or back on with . ”
Image credit: Google
Android users who delve into these settings and find they are assigned “topics” they don’t have may question Google’s approach to inferred interest-based ad targeting.
Hopefully there won’t be any more shocks — Google says its taxonomy of topics is “human-curated”, so including just “sensitive” topics as “presumed interest” This is to avoid
However, for sensitive topics (e.g. certain kinds of TV shows as stand-ins for political views), we can identify the ease of use of the proxy, suggesting that it can be rather naive. increase. Users may also want to consider whether someone else with access to their device can generate their interests. Depending on how the device is used, it can pose a privacy risk.
Google’s blog post does not detail these types of sensitive privacy considerations.
Instead, the company is slamming mobile platform rival Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature, which requires third-party iOS developers to ask users for consent to in-app tracking. and Chavez describes ATT as “candid.” Approaches and links to research conducted by third-party tracker blockers. ATT claims it doesn’t actually stop tracking, just giving users a “false sense of privacy”.
Chavez’s blog post further argues that Apple’s practices increase user tracking, such as through device fingerprinting, while undermining developers’ ability to generate advertising revenue. subtle tools. How to avoid the binary — It’s like asking people in advance if they want to be tracked.
Instead, for the vast majority of Android users, Google is filling a multi-layered settings menu with an option to disable tracking. This further blurs the options by suggesting that users reduce the amount of tracking they are comfortable with and allow behavioral targeting. Carry on (and generate new presumptive interest when they’re not looking).
Sandbox pitch Google has honed over years of development, with its evolved ad tech stack granting users “more privacy” (definitely not complete privacy, as defined by Google) On the one hand, the gravy train generates revenue for the ad tracking industry, but keeps it anchored in Google’s “evolved” infrastructure. As tracking cookies die, we’ll be using more tracking components in-house (which means we’re bound to rely more on Google than ever before).
Politely speaking, this is a compromise for both sides that, in the end, may not please either side. If you do, lose and lose. But Google seems to think it’s worth the bet. Because if you can successfully rebrand this tracking ad and get the sandbox to pass privacy and competition regulators and a bunch of advertisers who have complained to them then you have a really big win to keep winning Because we can. Adtech intermediaries with the majority of behavioral ad spend flowing into their coffers…
