Following the official retirement of the Privacy Sandbox initiative in October 2025, the immediate uncertainty surrounding a large-scale, mandatory migration to new Android advertising APIs has eased. Google is no longer pursuing the originally proposed Sandbox rollout that would have significantly restructured attribution and ad-targeting workflows. However, this does not mean Android’s privacy and advertising standards have frozen in place; platform policies and measurement frameworks continue to evolve.
While the pressure related specifically to the Privacy Sandbox initiative has eased for the time being, Apple’s privacy roadmap is delivering new complications that require immediate attention. For a strategic look at how to master the iOS side of the equation, check out Bidlogic’s recent analysis SKAdNetwork news: Apple’s latest privacy shifts explained for publishers. However, let’s focus on the Android case right now.
Google Privacy Sandbox explained
The Privacy Sandbox was an initiative designed to strengthen privacy across Google Chrome and Android. For the mobile ecosystem, it aimed to provide app developers with the instruments they require to sustain and grow their businesses without relying on invasive tracking. It sought to move away from cross-app identifiers, rolling out new solutions that limited third-party data sharing while keeping the platform’s ad-supported model intact. In doing so, it strived to protect user information while keeping a wide variety of apps accessible and free.
The end of the era
In light of the project’s official termination (in its full form) in October 2025, the Privacy Sandbox is now regarded as a past attempt by Google to bridge the gap between user data privacy and targeted advertising. Originally designed to phase out third-party cookies and mobile identifiers like the GAID (Google Advertising ID, the Android equivalent of Apple’s IDFA, Identifier for Advertisers), the initiative was ultimately retired due to low industry adoption, technical complexity, and growing pressure from global regulators. The Privacy Sandbox has transitioned into a smaller suite of tools designed to improve specific areas, such as fraud prevention. For Android developers, this pivot means the expected transition to specialized APIs like Topics and Attribution Reporting has been abandoned in favor of retaining the status quo. Google has now shifted its strategy away from these native “sandbox” replacements, instead focusing on providing users with individual privacy controls while keeping existing tracking technologies active.
The post-Sandbox outlook
Google is now collaborating with groups like the W3C to develop interoperable web standards that balance developer choice with user protection. This transition signals that while the specific Sandbox technologies are being phased out, the effort to create a privacy-centric advertising framework continues through long-term industry dialogue.
Moreover, it seems that Google’s devotion to privacy has simply shifted to the Play Store Policy level. Failure to comply with Android’s evolving privacy policies can result in harsh consequences, ranging from immediate app rejection and store-level penalties to account termination and legal action. In an increasingly regulated landscape, these risks might compromise your entire revenue model and permanently erode user trust. To safeguard your business, ensure you fully understand the following requirements:
- New verification rules: by late 2026, anonymous app distribution will effectively end. Every developer must undergo rigorous identity verification to ensure accountability within the ecosystem;
- EU DMA & Consent Mode v2: for publishers with European traffic, Google Consent Mode v2 is now a mandatory requirement under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). You must pass explicit signals (ad_user_data and ad_personalization) via a Google-certified CMP. Operating without this setup will lead to data loss for remarketing, modeling, and bidding;
- Mandatory AD_ID transparency: the com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID is now the “golden key.” Failure to declare it in your manifest file (for apps updating to or targeting Android 13 or higher) results in the Advertising ID being stripped and replaced with a string of zeros, instantly disabling personalised targeting and analytics;
- The “Zero-ID” standard: Google continues to enforce the “Zeroes Policy.” If a user exercises their right to delete their Advertising ID, or if your app lacks the proper declarations, the system returns a string of zeros;
- Although the specific SDK Runtime (designed to isolate ad code) was retired in October 2025, Google is achieving a similar level of isolation through Android 17 system updates. Using AI-driven audits, the Play Store now proactively detects “leaky” SDKs and enforces stricter memory isolation at the OS level to protect user data, rather than through complex new advertising APIs.
