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ROB CLIFFORD: Welcome to 10 things
to know about the Privacy Sandbox on Android.
I'm Rob Clifford, a Developer Relations
Engineer on the Privacy Sandbox for Android team.
And I'd like to introduce my colleagues, Erin Walsh
and Chris Schmerling.
Today, we're going to be talking about 10 things you
should know about the Privacy Sandbox for Android.
You can see the topics we will cover
are broken up into three categories, a recap
to talk about what we've achieved so far,
a chat about what's happening now in the Privacy Sandbox,
and lastly, how to get involved today
and be on the cutting edge of these exciting changes
to Android.
In case you're not already acquainted
with the Privacy Sandbox for Android,
here's a brief overview of what we've introduced so far.
Privacy Sandbox is an initiative across Google
to elevate standards for user privacy
while preserving the robust product ecosystems,
starting with Chrome and now available on Android.
In 2022, we announced we were working on bringing the Privacy
Sandbox approach to Android.
Our efforts on Android have been focused
on improving user privacy and enabling
effective, personalized advertisements that
allow developers to continue providing
free experiences for billions of people around the world.
This project consists of four different proposals--
Topics, Protected Audience, SDK Runtime,
and Attribution Reporting, each of which
work together to ensure a better user
experience while continuing to support the industry.
The Privacy Sandbox for Android has
passed several major milestones, including many developer
preview releases, launching into beta,
and working with industry partners
to drive adoption and solicit feedback on release tools
and announced plans.
Number one, in our engagements with industry partners,
we have been receiving a great deal of useful feedback, which
has help to shape our approach as we move closer
to industry-wide adoption.
"Responsibility sits at the heart of Rovio's technology
strategy.
Thus, we really appreciate Android
working with the industry to raise the bar for privacy,
while continuing to support a healthy app ecosystem."
"Unity is excited to collaborate with Android
to take a leap into the next era of privacy-centric digital
marketing on mobile.
Being able to navigate the evolving landscape with Privacy
Sandbox allows Unity to experiment and iterate
on how to drive success for our customers,
while at the same time keeping user data safe and secure.
This aligns with our approach at Unity,
as we are often the initial step in a game developer's journey
to building their business.
The Android team is being very thorough with regards
to delivering solutions that meet industry use cases
and providing valuable feedback as we move towards beta testing
and beyond."
"At AppsFlyer, we believe that privacy is an essential value,
and, as such, have built all of our products
with privacy at their core.
We've been working closely with Android's team
to enhance the level of privacy throughout the ecosystem,
while still providing robust solutions for marketing
measurement.
We're impressed with the strides and commitment Android
has made as our partner for privacy-centric measurement
in the short time since the Privacy Sandbox on Android
was announced."
Check out our blog for more quotes
from our industry partners.
As we look back on how far we've come with the Privacy
Sandbox for Android, it is important
also to look ahead to how we can continue
to build towards our goal of a privacy-first future
on Android.
And I'm going to hand it over to Erin to talk about highlights
in our current and future plans for rolling things out.
ERIN WALSH: Thanks, Rob.
Now that we know what the Privacy Sandbox is,
let's talk about some exciting new features we've released.
We've begun releasing beta versions of the Privacy Sandbox
alongside our developer previews.
The beta program integrates with stable Privacy Sandbox APIs
for testing on a limited number of Android 13 devices
in production.
We recommend that you try out developer previews
first to use the latest Privacy Sandbox features then
graduate to beta for a stable integration.
Before you can try either version,
you must go through the enrollment process.
Check out the Google I/O talk "Getting
Started with Attribution Reporting" to learn more.
Number two, you can access the beta releases
through the Privacy Sandbox Jetpack library.
Using Jetpack is the preferred way
to call the Privacy Sandbox APIs.
A useful feature of Jetpack is backwards compatibility.
If you use Privacy Sandbox through Jetpack,
you can build it once for the latest platform versions
without needing to worry about breaking older devices.
It's automagical.
To use the Ad Services Jetpack library in your app,
simply declare a dependency on the Privacy Sandbox Jetpack
library in your build.gradle file.
And then, at runtime, use the obtained function
to check for availability.
Obtain() will return null if the Privacy Sandbox is not
available.
To see the Privacy Sandbox Jetpack library in action,
check out our samples on GitHub.
Number three, SDK Extensions.
You can also access beta releases
through SDK Extensions.
SDK Extensions are a new mechanism
for accessing APIs of features delivered
through modular system components outside
of major Android releases.
To use an SDK Extension to access the Privacy Sandbox,
first, you need to check which SDKs include
the APIs you want to use.
You can check this on our API documentation
at the top right of the page.
Then you need to make sure your app compiles against the listed
SDK level or above.
Privacy Sandbox also requires Ad Services Extensions.
You can declare these in your app's build.gradle file.
Then, at runtime, you can check whether the Privacy Sandbox
beta is available on your device by using the SDK Extensions
API to check for your Ad Services version.
If the check returns the minimum level or above,
you're ready to use the Privacy Sandbox beta on your device.
Number four, SDK Runtime.
In case you've missed our previous announcements
and proposals, one of the most significant changes
to the Android development workflow coming
with the Privacy Sandbox is the SDK Runtime.
The SDK Runtime is a dedicated runtime environment
that aims to improve the user privacy
experience by separating ads-related SDKs from main app
code through sandboxing them into a separate runtime process
and restricting how the SDK accesses data.
This helps to ensure that only information which
is deemed appropriate is shared from the application
to the advertisers for ads personalization.
Number five, SDK runtime shim library.
As part of the initial release of the Privacy
Sandbox for Android Jetpack library,
we've introduced the SDK runtime shim library,
a toolkit designed to minimize impact
to app developers who will be using SDKs
that are inside the runtime.
The shim library will allow SDK developers
to provide a configured IBinder object that
can be used in app to remotely call SDK APIs,
even though they are in different processes.
Number six, cross-app and web measurement.
A new feature of the Attribution Reporting API
is the ability to measure across app and web.
That means if a user clicks an ad in an Android app
then makes a purchase in a mobile browser,
the API can attribute the conversion
made in the mobile browser to the ad shown in the app.
It also works the other way around.
You can learn more by watching "Getting Started
with Attribution Reporting."
Number seven, Simulation Library.
If you are working on your integration
with the Attribution Reporting API,
we have a new tool to help you test your measurement
strategy without the need to have
a full solution in production.
The Measurement Simulation Library
is a script that you can clone from our GitHub page
and run locally.
In the script, you can enter currently existing measurement
data, and it will return that same data
as if it were reported by the Attribution Reporting API.
You can use the Simulation Library to refine your privacy
limits, aggregation key structures,
batching strategies, and more.
By comparing the measurement data
you already have with that same data
as if delivered from the Attribution Reporting API,
you can gain valuable insights on the impacts the API will
have on your data and how to optimize your parameters.
Number eight, Topics Classifier Jupyter Notebook.
If you're an app developer who would
like to see how the Topics API will categorize your apps,
we've put together an easy way for you to do that.
Instead of needing to build a sample app using the API,
you can use our Topics Classifier Jupyter Notebook
that you can access through Google Colab in your browser.
This enables you to see how different combinations of app
data will change the resulting topics returned by the API.
So you can start planning to ensure your app is accurately
classified.
To learn more about how to get involved
with all of these new features, I'll throw it over to Chris.
CHRIS SHMERLING: Thanks for that recap on what
we've been working on, Erin.
Now, you must be wondering, as an ad tech or app developer,
how can I get involved in all of this?
Number nine, the Privacy Sandbox is in beta,
so the time to start is now.
Here's how you can think about getting
yourself production ready.
You can begin by designing solutions
incorporating the Privacy Sandbox
APIs relevant to your business needs.
Some important use cases, such as waterfall mediation and app
install negative filtering are currently supported,
with more coming and future beta releases.
You can always access our latest features in developer preview.
Then you can plan to do some real-world testing.
In order to understand the impact and results
of using the Privacy Sandbox APIs,
it's possible to run them in parallel with your existing
solutions.
For example, why not kick off a select ads auction
to see what ad would be selected while continuing
to serve ads as you do today?
Finally, engage with your other ad tech partners.
The mobile ad space is an ecosystem,
and everybody needs to play their part
to make the whole thing run smoothly.
Talk to your partners and see what they are doing
with the Privacy Sandbox today.
Number 10, are you an app or game developer
who shows mobile ads?
Good news-- you don't have much to do.
Reach out to the mobile ad SDK providers
you use to see what they are doing,
and let them know that user privacy is important to you.
And, of course, make sure to update to their latest SDK when
they roll out releases that include their Privacy Sandbox
integration.
To help get you started, check out the Privacy Sandbox sample
app repository on GitHub.
Based on your feedback, we have begun
building a sample project that shows how different type of ad
tech companies can work together to build
a solution across publisher and advertiser applications.
Or keep up to date with the latest developments
by following the documentation on developer.android.com.
We are always looking for feedback on our proposals,
and we'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for watching.
We look forward to seeing what you
build in the Privacy Sandbox.
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