Google has shared an update on new developments for Privacy Sandbox in a blog post published today. Amit Varia, Director of Product Management for Privacy Sandbox, writes that the developments – which are still in-progress – are based on testing and feedback.
“The first half of 2024 was filled with progress and learnings, as ad tech companies engaged in testing the core Privacy Sandbox technologies: Topics, Protected Audience, and Attribution Reporting APIs. The feedback from this testing highlighted areas for potential enhancements and continued investment from Privacy Sandbox.”
Specifically, Google announced three updates to the Protected Audience API: enhanced deal support, “clickiness” signals for bidding, and extended interest group lifespan.
Why This Matters:
Enhanced deal support will allow for the inclusion of deal information (deal ID and seat ID) within interest groups. According to Google, the goal is to support private marketplace deals and curated access to premium inventory.
With “clickiness” signals for bidding, advertisers and their adtech partners can better optimize spending by registering views and clicks with the browser. “At Protected Audience bidding time,” Varia explains, “the browser counts the registered views and clicks on that device for pre-defined time intervals so that bidding logic can take those signals into account.”
Google also shared that the maximum lifespan of Protected Audience interest groups will be raised from 30 to 90 days. The change is meant to better support advertisers with longer customer journeys, like travel or auto.
Experts React:
“We look forward to testing these features in collaboration with publishers and Chrome to see how they work and evaluate if they cover the necessary use cases,” says Mike McNeeley, SVP of Product at Index Exchange.
Our Take:
In July, Index Exchange actually published a blog post about Privacy Sandbox in which they said, “Our tests have proven that millions of Sandbox impressions can be purchased and delivered, however, many open questions and issues remain to be addressed.” Clearly, and to its credit, Google continues to have an ongoing dialogue with the industry to modify Privacy Sandbox based on real-world testing, and is actively incorporating feedback.
In July, Google infamously announced it was pulling back on its plan to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome. Instead, the company decided to put the onus on Chrome users to make choices about cookies while continuing to develop alternatives through Privacy Sandbox. After a period of relative quiet, it’s encouraging to see Google share some updates on the initiative.
