Google introduces confidential matching for advertisers

Tech giant Google has launched ‘confidential matching’, a tool built with confidential computing, which aims to transform how businesses can securely connect and  manage first-party data. 

The technology, built with Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), ensures data security by isolating information during processing so that no one else can access the data, including Google. 

TEEs, which are used across the industry – including in Google Cloud’s Confidential Space – allow for secured data handling in areas such as financial fraud detection and medical data encrypting and have received security reviews from third-party auditors. 

Confidential matching is currently available to all customers at no additional cost and Google is also working towards making the TEE architecture open source to help others build similar solutions.

It is now the default for data connections made in customer match and Google ads data manager and it will be rolling out globally, with plans to extend confidential matching to more advertising solutions in the future. 

Additionally, Google is working with industry bodies like the IAB Tech Lab to further develop and adopt privacy-enhancing technologies. This aligns with Google’s privacy principles and its goal to make privacy-enhancing technologies more accessible and continue to invest in it long-term. 

This announcement overlaps with Google beginning its antitrust trial against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) last week. In the trial, the DOJ is attempting to prove that Google has an adtech monopoly while Google is trying to defend itself, partially because of its commitment to creating privacy-first solutions. 

The story first appeared on Campaign's sister publication Performance Marketing World.