David Temkin

David Temkin is best known as the driving force behind Google's Privacy Sandbox, the most ambitious and consequential privacy initiative in digital advertising history. As Vice President of Ads Privacy and Trust at Google, he led the multi-year effort to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome and develop privacy-preserving alternatives — including the Topics API, FLEDGE/Protected Audience API, and Attribution Reporting API — that would allow the open web advertising ecosystem to function without cross-site tracking. His work placed him at the epicenter of a global debate involving advertisers, publishers, regulators, and privacy advocates, and his 2021 blog post announcing Google's commitment to not building alternative user-level identifiers sent shockwaves through the industry. Throughout his tenure at Google, Temkin navigated extraordinary complexity, engaging with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and ICO as part of formal regulatory commitments around the Privacy Sandbox, while simultaneously working to bring the broader ad industry along on a technical and philosophical transformation. His role required balancing Google's commercial interests with genuine privacy advancement and regulatory scrutiny, making him one of the most closely watched executives in AdTech during the late 2010s and early 2020s. Since departing Google, Temkin has emerged as an influential independent voice, advising companies on privacy strategy, identity solutions, and cookieless readiness. His deep expertise in privacy-preserving measurement, browser-based advertising APIs, and regulatory compliance makes him a sought-after consultant as the industry continues to grapple with the post-cookie transition — a transition he did more than almost anyone to define.

• Bachelor's Degree, University of Michigan

• Led Google's Privacy Sandbox initiative, developing browser-based privacy-preserving alternatives to third-party cookies including the Topics API and Protected Audience API
• Authored Google's landmark 2021 blog post committing to not building alternative cross-site user-level identifiers, reshaping industry identity strategy
• Negotiated formal regulatory commitments with the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regarding Privacy Sandbox development and deployment
• Guided Google's ads privacy strategy through the implementation of major global privacy regulations including GDPR and CCPA

• Charting a course towards a more privacy-first web (Google Blog, 2021)
• Building a privacy-first future for web advertising (Google Blog, 2021)