Google Will Bring Ad-Friendly Privacy Sandbox to Android

Google said it would bring its Privacy Sandbox initiative to Android phones, vowing to chart a less “blunt” path than rival Apple Inc., whose push to protect users’ personal information has dinged the digital advertising market.

The Alphabet Inc. company, which relies on ads for most of its revenue, said it can protect phone users’ data while giving advertisers and appmakers new technology to offer relevant promotions and track outcomes. The proposed tools for the Android mobile operating system would limit appmakers’ ability to share a person’s information with third parties, and ban data tracking across multiple applications, Anthony Chavez, vice president of product management for Android Security & Privacy, wrote Wednesday in a blog post. Google said it planned a beta launch of the tools by the end of 2022 and “scaled testing” in 2023.