ChatGPT, explain Google Privacy Sandbox like I’m 10

Google is great at many things, but making it easy to understand what the heck it’s doing isn’t one of them. Take its definition for the Google Privacy Sandbox. Click the explainer on the homepage and you get:

“A series of APIs to satisfy cross-site use cases without third-party cookies or other tracking mechanisms.”

To which almost everyone in the world will go, huh?

Okay, maybe if you have a vague understanding of APIs you can hazard a guess. Something to do with Google suggesting a new methodology for tracking users, right?

How would you, then, explain Google Privacy Sandbox in layman’s terms? 

Tiago Garcia Carvalho, a Digital Marketing Manager at Portuguese liquor brand Licor Beirão, asked a better question: how would you explain it to a 10-year-old kid?

Last year, he might’ve asked that question to his peers. Perhaps he would’ve Googled it. But the year is 2023 and in 2023, Tiago turned to ChatGPT. 

“The answer was unsurprisingly funny and (Disney-level) accurate! This simple exercise made me think about the future of education and all the beautiful and engaging stories that will (again) be the driving force of knowledge.” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.

With Tiago’s permission, we transcribed ChatGPT’s answer below. It’s insightful, light-hearted and very simplistic (as it should be, given that it’s meant for kids). 

It’s also a reminder that, for all the gloom and doom that has surrounded generative AI in recent months, there are still cases in which applications like ChatGPT can do a good job of explaining complex concepts using easy-to-understand language. And can do so in a manner that might actually be superior to whatever you’d get from Google answers, Reddit answers, Quora answers or the expert you chat to by the water cooler. 

But that’s a conversation for another time. The point is, that ChatGPT’s answer makes for a good read. And the 10-year-old in me certainly came out of it a bit more clued up. 

ChatGPT’s answer to “Explain Google Privacy Sandbox to a 10-year-old kid”

“Imagine you’re playing in a sandbox at the park. In this sandbox, you can build sandcastles, dig tunnels, or just have fun playing with your toys. Now, imagine this sandbox is like the internet, and instead of playing with sand and toys, people are browsing websites and watching videos.

Google’s Privacy Sandbox is like making new rules for the sandbox (the internet) to make sure everyone can still play and have fun, but also stay safe and private. Here’s how it works:

1. No More Secret Spies: Normally, when you visit websites, there are like little secret spies (called cookies) that follow you around and see what you’re doing. This is so companies can show you ads for things you might like. But in the Privacy Sandbox, Google wants to stop these secret spies from following you everywhere.
2. Groups Instead of Individuals: Instead of watching what one person does, Google will look at what a big group of people like doing, and then show ads to the whole group. It’s like if a group of kids in the sandbox all like playing with toy trucks, so you bring more toy trucks for everyone, but you don’t know which specific kid likes them the most.
3. Special Tokens to Prove You’re Real: There are also special tokens (like special coins) that prove you’re a real person and not a robot or someone pretending to be someone else. But these tokens don’t tell who you are, just that you’re a real person.
4. Counting Without Peeking: Google wants to help companies know if their ads are working, like if people are buying things after seeing an ad. But they want to do this without peeking into what each person is doing. It’s like counting how many kids are playing with toy trucks without knowing each kid’s name.
5. Keeping Personal Stuff on Your Device: Google is thinking about keeping all your personal stuff (like what websites you visit) right on your device (like your computer or phone), instead of sending it out to other people. It’s like keeping your own toys in your own sandbox bucket.

So, Google’s Privacy Sandbox is all about making sure everyone can play on the internet, see cool ads for things they might like, but also keep their private stuff safe and not let others know too much about what they’re doing. It’s like making the internet a safer and more fun place to play and explore!”

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