Google announces Privacy Sandbox for Android: Here’s what it means

Google announced yesterday its plans to expand the Chrome-focused Privacy Sandbox initiative to its Android mobile operating system—named Privacy Sandbox on Android—with the goal of developing “effective and privacy enhancing advertising solutions, where users know their information is protected, and developers and businesses have the tools to succeed on mobile.” These solutions will be built and tested over the course of at least the next two years, during which time Google will continue to support existing ad platform features.

This update follows Google’s June 2, 2021 announcement that, as of Android 12, the Android Advertising ID will be zeroed out for all users who have opted out of ads personalization in their device settings. Click here for a refresher on how the Android advertising ID is currently used, what the privacy change means for the industry and how attribution and measurement will work when the change goes into effect.

Putting privacy first: what it means for your business

For now, nothing has changed for our clients. Adjust will continue to use the Android Advertising ID to do deterministic attribution until Google’s privacy change goes into effect. When it does, we will not be able to use the Android Advertising ID for the attribution of opted-out users.

Adjust has never stored Android Advertising IDs internally, and all Android Advertising IDs for users who have opted out of ads personalization have always been flagged accordingly when received so as to respect the user's privacy.

We encourage you to review and bookmark Google’s Privacy Sandbox on Android page, which includes many possible solutions for privacy-preserving APIs, a roadmap and timeframe of the multi-year initiative, and latest developments. Google is welcoming feedback from the industry on the design proposals and testing as previews become available.

For the past eight months, Adjust has been working closely with the Google Ads team to make sure that we can continue to provide deterministic attribution for all inventory when the new rules roll out. We will continue to provide input and insights to ensure that we have a solution that empowers advertisers to make the right choices for their marketing efforts, while respecting the utmost user privacy.

Google noted in its announcement that it “intends to provide substantial notice ahead of any future changes.” Adjust will continue to keep you updated so that you can get the insights you need to measure and optimize your campaigns with confidence in the most effective, privacy-compliant manner.