Dmitriy К. Google Ad Expert

Privacy Sandbox: how to protect user data without harming advertisers

Users are increasingly concerned about the privacy of their data on the Internet. Passwords, credit card numbers, search history, browser, purchases, personal data, all this need to be protected from scammers.

Google also understands the demand to meet the privacy needs of users. The company launched the Privacy Sandbox project and is testing several technologies at once to protect user data. Including an alternative to the usual cookies.

What is Privacy Sandbox

Privacy Sandbox, or "Privacy Test Environment" is a long-term project of Google Chrome. Its main goal is to ensure the privacy of Internet users. One of the priority tasks of the project is to get rid of third-party cookies, by which analytics systems track the behavior and interests of each user individually. At the same time, marketers and advertisers should be able to show advertising messages based on interests and behavior on the network, as well as track leads and sales.

It's still hard to imagine how it's possible to show relevant ads and clearly track their performance without third-party cookies. When Google first introduced Privacy Sandbox technologies for Interest-Based Advertising (FLoC) last year, they started with the idea that identifying groups of people with common interests could replace individual identifiers. The company now has evidence that with this innovation, you can get almost the same results as with cookies. New technologies such as FLoC, coupled with developments in the areas of analytics, fraud protection and fingerprinting are the future of online advertising. Privacy Sandbox will support web products in a world without third party cookies.

What solutions and technologies are being tested within the Privacy Sandbox

Google and its partners are moving in several directions at once to improve the security of user data. They create new technologies to target and analyze ads, inspect traffic, and fight fraud.

Interest targeting

Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) is a new way to reach people with relevant content and ads by grouping them into large groups with similar interests. This approach effectively hides people "in the crowd" and processes the data on the device to keep the web history private. After creating simulations based on the principles defined by the FLoC, Google's advertising teams ran a test. The results suggest that when it comes to creating interest-based audiences, FLoC can be an effective replacement for third-party cookies. FLoC tests for target and Google Affinity reach have shown that for every dollar spent, you can get at least 95% of conversions compared to cookie-based advertising. The specific result depends on the strength of the clustering algorithm that FLoC uses and the type of target audience.

The Google team was encouraged by the positive test results and the value of this solution for users, publishers and advertisers.

Creating Audiences

The Privacy Sandbox project also includes suggestions for how marketers can build their audiences without third-party cookies. One example is when advertisers attract visitors to their site through remarketing.

In 2020, several members of the ad tech community such as Criteo, NextRoll, Magnite, and RTB House have speculated about how this might work. Chrome has published a new FLEDGE proposal that expands on the previously published TURTLEDOVE and takes into account industry feedback, including the idea of ​​using a "trusted server" to store campaign bidding and budget information.

While offerings like FLoC and FLEDGE are preparing alternative ways to reach relevant audiences while maintaining privacy, Google is also working to help advertisers decide how much to bid for ads that these audiences will see. The company invites ad exchanges, platforms and advertisers to start experimenting with the technology in the Privacy Sandbox test environment. Feedback on these tests will help ensure that ad auctions continue to function smoothly when Google stops supporting third-party cookies.

Effect analysis activity

As part of the Privacy Sandbox, Chrome has offered a number of technologies that will allow marketers and agencies to measure the effectiveness of campaigns without third-party cookies. They protect user privacy while meeting the key needs of advertisers: event-level reports that help bidding models recognize patterns in data; reports based on aggregated data that provide accurate analytics by user groups.

Using privacy-preserving techniques (aggregation of information, adding noise, and limiting the amount of data sent from devices), the proposed APIs send conversion data in a way that protects user privacy. For example, iteration of the event-level API is now available in initial trials to measure click-through conversions. It protects privacy by creating noise and limiting the bits of data that an API can send at a time. As a result, advertisers will have to prioritize and decide which conversions are most important to them.

Now the Google Ads team continue to explore how API conversion measurement can be used in conjunction with Google products to:

- creating conversion reports;

- definitions of growth and coverage;

- performing attribution.

Google recommends using tags throughout your site using a global tag or Google Tag Manager to minimize disruptions during this time. Before creating a prototype, some issues will need to be resolved, including what should be the noise level and what is the minimum number of conversions that should be included in the summary report. That's why Google invites ad tech companies, publishers, and advertisers to participate in forum discussions.

Traffic check

The performance of an ad-supported Internet depends on being able to distinguish real visitors from fraudulent traffic. That's why Chrome opened up the Trust Token API for testing in July 2020 to help companies authenticate traffic without revealing people's identities. In March 2021, with the next release of the browser, Chrome launched a trial version of the interface to support the new Trust Token issuer type. It will allow better detection of fraud on mobile devices while maintaining user privacy. Then Google Ads started testing this feature on mobile devices with trusted users, and they promise to share the results on the forums.

Fingerprint protection

An important goal of the Privacy Sandbox is to develop technology to protect people from opaque or hidden technical solutions that spread data about individual users and allow them to be secretly tracked. One such solution uses the device's IP address to attempt to identify the user without the user knowing or being able to opt out. Chrome recently published a Gnatcatcher proposal that allows you to mask your IP address and thus protect your identity without interfering with the normal operation of the site. This proposal will be further developed based on feedback from the web community.

The future of online privacy

With initial FLoC results, ongoing API development, and ad market dialogue, Google is more confident than ever that the Privacy Sandbox is the best way to increase user privacy without preventing publishers from making money from premium content or advertisers from serving their ads to the right users. For Google Ads, Privacy Sandbox technologies symbolize the future of online advertising and analytics services. Google is calling for this new approach together to deliver a better user experience and more reliable solutions for the advertising industry.

Get a website traffic audit as a bonus