Google has begun handing out a test version of Privacy Sandbox for Android. The initiative is the company’s effort to combine user privacy with targeted advertising, which it has been working on for years as part of its planned transition away from cookie-based online monitoring.
The Topics API, which gathers a list of your top interests based on use, is one of Privacy Sandbox’s cornerstones. It then compares them to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s database and Google’s statistics. Partner publishers may ping the API, which replies with a list of interests to assist in serving suitable advertising without disclosing too personal information. According to Google, saved interests are “preserved for just three weeks, and outdated subjects are erased.” Moreover, data and processing are performed on-device “without the involvement of any other servers, including Google servers.”
