Google announces plans to extend Privacy Sandbox to Android

And why it matters to marketers

Today Google announced the start of a multi-year initiative to build the Privacy Sandbox on Android - with the goal to introduce new, more private advertising solutions. Specifically, these solutions will limit sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID.

This move by Google will overhaul tracking on Android phones, moving the mobile platform along a similar path that Apple took with its tracker blocking on iOS in 2021. At the moment Android devices are each assigned a unique identifier (an advertising ID) which is used to build a profile of an Android user that developers can use to target in-app ads. Once the new changes have been implemented – the advertising ID will be phased out in favour of alternative targeting mechanisms that Google say will be better for user privacy.

Today’s announcement is the next stage for the Privacy Sandbox. Google began adding privacy measures around its advertising ID last year, rolling out changes that let users have their unique identifier removed from the system and overwritten with zeros once they opted out of being tracked. With the Privacy Sandbox being rolled out to Android, developers will need to use an entirely different system to tap into data about user preferences.

Why this matters to you, as a marketer

In the data-driven marketing and advertising landscape, the need to understand the shift away from third party cookies and Mobile Advertiser IDs has never been more important. To be able to adjust marketing plans and attribution modelling to integrate the changes in the tech environment, you must be across the news of changes being incorporated.

When it comes to the Major Tech platforms, “change” is now a constant. It is driven by regulation development globally and the need to provide solutions that work for both the consumer and the advertiser (and the platform). Over the last few years data-driven marketers have had to tweak (or overhaul) their digital marketing plans and attribution modelling to prepare for the impact of each change. It has been a long journey. Since 2017, Apple began working to block third party collection and limit attribution with its ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) technology. In 2019, Firefox removed cookies. That same year Google announced its Privacy Sandbox initiative, followed up with the headline news of its plans to change Chrome (nearly 70% of the browser market). Google later delayed that rollout until mid-2023. Earlier this year Google announced a change in its launch of ‘Topics’ in replacement of FloC.

Among all of this activity the UK Competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), investigated Google’s proposals around Privacy Sandbox stating that “Google’s alternatives to the third party cookie could cause advertising spending to become even more concentrated on Google”. Google put forward its commitments to improve privacy without adversely affecting competition and, after some back and forth, these commitments were accepted by the regulator earlier this week.

Next steps

Google is calling for app developers to provide feedback to the proposed Privacy Sandbox for Android, which will be collected and integrated into a beta version of the new system, expected to be released by the end of the year. Google has anticipated that the phase out from the current system would last at least two years and that there will be substantial notice given to the market.

For you, as a data-driven marketer, today’s announcement makes it clear that if “third-party cookie deprecation fatigue” had started to set in – now is not the time to slow down. While the Privacy Sandbox for the web (Chrome browser) has always been important, the Android version will likely have as big (or bigger) an impact given the size and significance of the mobile marketing marketplace and the use of personalised targeting via apps.

Data-driven marketers will need to keep an eye on both Apple and Google’s movement in this area. While Apple’s approach appears to give the market less notice, its ATT update nonetheless caused major disruption in the digital ad space. Meta, in its 4th Quarter Results call estimated that the ATT change cost it some $10 billion this year. Google’s equivalent data privacy control for Android will likely have just as substantial an impact. While Google’s approach does appear to allow more time and insight to build alternative insights and Topics targeting will provide at least some insight to ad partners, Google must get this right or there could be a disastrous impact on the digital ad ecosystem, leading to higher costs and lower campaign performance across the board.

This is only the start of what will likely be a well-developed and scrutinised approach. In the meantime, while this is happening data-driven marketers can prepare for what is to come. Savvy marketers will continue to build quality first party data. It will be critical to data-driven marketing success, no matter which way the tech giants move. In building first party data it is important to ensure best practice in the privacy practices in place around that data. This will allow you to safely integrate use of this first party data into your marketing plans, giving you more control of your results and building customer trust and engagement with your brand along the way.

Privacy-first is more than a tagline, it is a focus. Whether you are a data-driven marketer or a global tech platform, the privacy of the individual is paramount. How that can be balanced with commercial considerations is always being considered. In building its own privacy sandbox, Google has pledged to ensure that its new systems won’t give preferential treatment to its own ad products or sites.

We can be sure that the regulators around the world will be watching as they continue to play a crucial role in ensuring that privacy doesn’t come at the expense of a competitive market.

We’ll be watching this space.