What are Private State Tokens?
Private State Tokens (PST) are a privacy-preserving web platform API, part of Google’s Privacy Sandox. They are designed to convey trust signals across different websites without compromising user privacy or enabling individual user tracking.
PSTs enable trust in a user’s authenticity to be conveyed from one context to another and help websites combat fraud and distinguish bots from real humans without passive tracking. PSTs involves two key components:
- Issuer, a website that issues tokens to web browsers of users.
- Redeemer, a website that checks for tokens from trusted issuers to confirm user authenticity.
Tokens are encrypted, preventing individual identification and ensuring that trusted and untrusted instances cannot be connected. Unlike cookies, PSTs (Privacy-Safe Tokens) do not compromise user privacy when storing multiple tokens from an issuer.