Google’s privacy sandbox enters the test phase – t3n – digital pioneers

Google would like to make the Privacy Sandbox available next summer. (Image: Shutterstock / Thaspol Sangsee)

According to Google, the first tests of the privacy sandbox can soon be carried out – without any third-party cookies. However, it will be some time before these are actually completely abolished.

Google has been working on an alternative to third-party cookies for Chrome for three years now. Now the company has the next steps of the so-called Privacy sandbox announced.

Accordingly, the relevance and measurement APIs of the Privacy Sandbox will be made available to all Chrome users with the Chrome release in July 2023. Initial tests without third-party cookies can then already be carried out.

According to Google, developers will be able to simulate the elimination of third-party cookies for Chrome for a configurable percentage of their users in the fourth quarter of 2023.

“With this milestone, developers can leverage these APIs to run real-world or live traffic-based tests at scale while preparing to operate without third-party cookies. Until the third-party cookies are abolished, we do not plan to make any significant changes to the API interfaces.

For companies that aren’t already using the APIs, Google advises to consider integrating the APIs into their products while planning the transition to privacy-preserving solutions.

Google’s outlook also states that third-party cookies are to be abolished for one percent of Chrome users in the first quarter of 2024. “This will help developers run real-world tests to assess the readiness and effectiveness of their products without third-party cookies.”

Unlike third-party cookies, Google’s privacy sandbox is intended to replace the advertising ID, which can track users across different applications, with privacy-friendly APIs.

User behavior is tracked internally by the privacy sandbox. The browser logs which websites have been visited and uses this information to select three main topics that a person has been interested in over the past three weeks.

Via the so-called Topics API, website operators are then able to call up relevant topics and transmit the information to an advertising network.

The privacy sandbox has been criticized because, depending on how it is implemented, Google could gain a competitive advantage and a dominant position in the advertising industry.

Google is therefore facing antitrust lawsuits in several countries – including the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands.