In its ongoing effort to strike the right balance between ad targeting and consumer data collection, Google Ads is introducing a new process it calls “confidential matching.” Relying on the hardware and software used for confidential computing in Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), Google says this new approach allows businesses to securely manage their first-party data. They’ll still be able to use it to reach customers and measure the impact of their digital ad campaigns, but the information will be isolated “during processing so that no one — including Google — can access the data being processed.”

“Similar to data clean rooms, the process essentially encrypts the two data sets, ensuring that no personal data is shared, while still enabling custom ad targeting,” writes Social Media Today, adding that the TEEs “combine data inputs, then facilitate ad targeting based on this amalgamated output.”

“Confidential matching will now be the default setting for all uses of advertiser first-party data in Customer Match on the Google Ads platform, including via Google Ads Data Manager,” reports AdExchanger, noting that “the solution is free to use for all Google Ads clients and does not require the advertiser to enter a separate arrangement with Google Cloud.”

Google has been collaborating with an IAB Tech Lab privacy working group to come up with TEE best practices. The search giant has built a TEE in Google Cloud to create an isolated computing environment dedicated to ad targeting and measurement. The open-source TEE code is available on GitHub.

To make confidential matching easy and accessible for all advertisers, “the solution also prioritizes injecting first-party data into Google Ads Data Manager in a way that requires no technical lift or investment from the advertiser,” AdExchanger explains.

“TEEs are already a proven technology, used across different industries to protect data like passwords and credit card numbers,” according to a Google Ads & Commerce Blog post that cites its use in things like financial fraud detection. “In other applications, it enables privacy preserving data sharing between businesses because of its unique security properties.”

Earlier this year, Google announced it was changing its ad-tracking strategy. Confidential matching comes after the Alphabet company abandoned a cookie substitute for its Chrome browser in 2022 that “didn’t get too much success,” Digital Information World writes.