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Check explainer

Privacy Sandbox

Google largely wound down the Privacy Sandbox in 2025, several ad APIs are being retired. This check is an inventory signal, not a recommendation.

  • note
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What we check

Detects Privacy Sandbox APIs: Topics, FedCM, Attribution Reporting, Protected Audience.

Why it matters

Google largely wound down the Privacy Sandbox in 2025, several of the ad APIs (Topics, Attribution Reporting, Protected Audience) are being retired. If the scan finds these APIs on a page, in 2026 that is less a feature than a sign of upcoming tech debt.

Common causes

  • An ad-tech or CMP script brought the API calls along, nobody added them deliberately.
  • A 2024 pilot project (Topics, Attribution Reporting) keeps running unobserved.
  • FedCM is in use for login, the part of the Sandbox that persists, then the finding is uncritical.

How to fix it

Stop investing in Sandbox APIs. If Attribution Reporting or Topics is in productive use, plan the migration: conversion measurement via server-side tagging plus CAPI / Enhanced Conversions, reach measurement via your own first-party data.

  • Q01
    What does a failing Privacy Sandbox finding mean?

    The check inventories Privacy Sandbox APIs (Topics, FedCM, Attribution Reporting, Protected Audience) on the page. Since Google's 2025 retreat this is primarily a tech-debt signal: anyone who built on them needs a migration path.

  • Q02
    How do you fix Privacy Sandbox?

    Stop investing in Sandbox APIs. Secure conversion measurement through server-side tagging plus CAPI / Enhanced Conversions, which works independently of Google's course changes.