IMDA launches Privacy Enhancing Technology Sandbox with Google

The Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) has partnered with Google to launch privacy-enhancing technologies (PET) x Privacy Sandbox to support businesses that wish to pilot PET projects.

PETs allow businesses to extract value from data and ensure the protection of personal data and other commercially sensitive information.

It also increases the options for B2B data collaboration, enables cross-border data flows, and increases the availability of data for developing AI systems.

Singapore's Minister for Communications and Information & Second Minister for Home Affairs, Josephine Teo, told the Personal Data Protection Week 2023 event that this is Google’s first partnership in the Asia Pacific with a regulator (IMDA) to support the industry in testing and adopting PETs.

Teo said, businesses will need PETs as an "alternative" as they can no longer rely on third-party cookies to track consumers’ behaviour through web browsers.

"Many companies in Singapore and the region will gain a safe space to pilot projects using PETs on a platform they already operate on," she added.

IMDA said the PET x Privacy Sandbox will benefit both companies and consumers and is now open to Singapore-based businesses, AdTechs, publishers, developers and more. 

Teo said that IMDA has already collaborated with many companies, large and small, for the PET sandbox and is "actively" pursuing more such collaborations.

It aims to harness technology to build a trusted data ecosystem that supports AI innovation.

Through experimentation and testing, "we strive to build a robust tech ecosystem and facilitate cross-border data flows," she added.

Earlier in 2022, IMDA and Singapore's Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) launched a PET Sandbox to pilot PET projects that address common business challenges.

Drawing on the lessons from the pilots, IMDA and PDPC planned to identify common software tools for adopting PETs and develop policy guidance to set standards and best practices for data protection.

PDPC's Deputy Commissioner, Denise Wong, said, "We look forward to participation by other interested companies and even more insights to shape conversations about PETs."