Google releases Privacy Sandbox Beta on Android 13 devices for ad-tracking

Tech giant Google has announced that it is rolling out Privacy Sandbox Beta to a small percentage of Android 13 devices, allowing users and developers to experience and evaluate “new solutions” in the real world.

Google introduces Privacy Sandbox Beta for Android 13

Last year in February, the company introduced the Privacy Sandbox on Android as an “industry-wide initiative to raise the bar for user privacy and ensure continued access to free content and services.”

“Building on our web efforts, we’re developing solutions for digital advertising that limit user data sharing and don’t rely on cross-app identifiers,” Google said in a blogpost on Tuesday.

The devices which are selected for the Beta, will receive an Android notification informing the same.

“The Privacy Sandbox Beta provides new application programming interfaces (APIs) that are designed with privacy at the core, and don’t use identifiers that can track your activity across apps and websites,” the tech giant said.

Participated apps in the Beta can use the APIs to show users relevant ads and measure their effectiveness.

Moreover, users will be able to control their Beta participation by navigating to the Privacy Sandbox section of Settings, where they can see and manage the interests that applications can use to show them relevant ads.

“Our goal with the Privacy Sandbox is to enhance user privacy while providing businesses with the tools to succeed online. Blunt approaches that don’t provide viable alternatives harm app developers, and they don’t work for user privacy either, leading to less private ways of tracking users like device fingerprinting,” the company said.

“We’ll continue to work closely with developers, marketers and regulators on this journey,” it added.

–With inputs from IANS