Google initiative to create web standards for advertising without the use of third-party cookies
The Privacy Sandbox is an initiative led by Google to create web standards for websites to access user information without compromising privacy.[1] Its core purpose is to facilitate online advertising without the use of third-party cookies.[2]: 39 The initiative includes Federated Learning of Cohorts as well as other proposed technologies,[3] many of which have bird-themed names.[4] It was announced in August 2019.[5][6]
The initiative has been described as anti-competitive and has generated an antitrust response.
Privacy Sandbox will also be available on Android.[7][8]
Model
Proposals in the Privacy Sandbox are based on advertising through cohorts rather than to individuals. They generally place the web browser in control of the user's privacy, moving some of the data collection and processing that facilitates advertising onto the user's device itself.[2]: 41 There are three focuses within the Privacy Sandbox initiative: replacing the functionality of cross-site tracking, removing third-party cookies, and mitigating the risk of device fingerprinting.[2]: 45
Proposals
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In January 2020, Google invited advertising technology companies to join the Improving Web Advertising Business Group (IWABG) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as a way to participate in the proposal process for the Privacy Sandbox. The IWABG is chaired by Wendy Seltzer.[9] The W3C is a consensus-building organization and would not prevent Google from deploying technology without consensus.[10]
Each proposal within the Privacy Sandbox initiative would perform one of the functions of targeted advertising that is currently done through cookies.[11]
Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC)/Topics API
The Federated Learning of Cohorts algorithm analyzes users' online activity within the browser, and generates a "cohort ID" using the SimHash algorithm[12] to group a given user with other users who access similar content.[13]: 9 Unlike other Privacy Sandbox proposals which replace existing functions of cookies, FLoC proposes a new mechanism for targeted advertising.[14] The FLoC proposal has been criticized by privacy advocates, data ethics researchers, and others.[15] All major browsers based on Chromium pledged to remove FLoC. Google ended development of FLoC and proposed Topics API as a replacement.[16] Topics API, which transfers information about user interests from one site to another, has been criticized by web publishers for enabling user tracking often at the detriment to publishers with unique content.
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Proposals for serving advertisements
TURTLEDOVE
TURTLEDOVE, which stands for "Two Uncorrelated Requests, Then Locally-Executed Decision On Victory",[2]: 45 is a framework proposed by Google to serve ads through the browser.[2]: 49
SPARROW
SPARROW, which stands for "Secure Private Advertising, Remotely Run On Webserver",[2]: 45 is a proposal made by advertising company Criteo in response to Google's TURTLEDOVE. It would place a third party in control of parts of the ad service process, so that the browser company would not have as much control.[2]: 51
Dovekey
Dovekey is a proposal made by Google in response to both SPARROW and TURTLEDOVE. It places the final part of the ad service process in the browser, but uses a third party server for key-value association.[2]: 52
PARRROT
PARRROT, which stands for "Publisher Auction Responsibility Retention Revision of Turtledove",[18] is a proposal by advertising company Magnite in response to TURTLEDOVE. It places ad publishers in control of the ad service process through code embedded in their websites.[2]: 53
Fledge
Fledge, which stands for "First Locally-Executed Decision over Groups Experiment", is a proposal that would allow ad-tech companies to serve ads within the Google Chrome browser from their own servers. As of April 2021[update], Google plans to trial the technology in late 2021.[19]
Proposals for analytics
PeLICAn
PeLICAn, which stands for "Private Learning and Interference for Causal Attribution", is a proposal introduced by Neustar in early December 2020. It was intended to raise awareness of the need for web analytics tools within the Privacy Sandbox.[20]
Antitrust concerns
In January 2021, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the United Kingdom announced plans to investigate the Privacy Sandbox initiative, with a focus on its potential impacts on both publishers and users.[21] The initial investigation was slated to continue until July 2021.[22][needs update] In a statement, CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said that "Google’s Privacy Sandbox proposals will potentially have a very significant impact on publishers like newspapers and the digital advertising market," and that there were also "privacy concerns to consider."[23]
In March 2021, 15 attorneys general of U.S. states and Puerto Rico amended an antitrust complaint filed the previous December; the updated complaint says that Google Chrome's phase-out of third-party cookies in 2022[24] will "disable the primary cookie-tracking technology almost all non-Google publishers currently use to track users and target ads. Then [...] Chrome, will offer [...] new and alternative tracking mechanisms [...] dubbed Privacy Sandbox. Overall, the changes are anticompetitive".[25][26] The lawsuit suggests that the proposed changes in the Privacy Sandbox would effectively require advertisers to use Google as a middleman in order to advertise.[24]
