With an increased focus on security and privacy, Google has been trying to reinvent the way the internet tracks users via tiny embedded files called cookies. It's a tall order: Cookie-based advertising is the basis of the global digital advertising industry, including the ads you see on this very page. While reactions to Google's new Privacy Sandbox initiative have been tepid at best, the company is expanding it from Chrome on desktops and laptops to Android phones.

Google announced that it will bring the Privacy Sandbox to its Android platform and mobile versions of Chrome slowly, gradually introducing its component parts over the next two years. In addition to working with software developers to “raise the bar for user privacy,” the company is offering public comments to users. This move is, to a greater or lesser degree, a response to Apple's widely lauded iOS app tracking tools introduced last year. Google acknowledges it: “We realize that other platforms have taken a different approach to ads privacy”—but as a business that's essentially built on profitable advertising, it can't take the same radical stance Apple has.

Privacy Sandbox does away with conventional cookies, instead presenting advertisers with blocks of semi-anonymized users grouped together based on shared factors like interests, demographics, and behavior. It's a less specific and more general means of targeted ads, sacrificing the hyper-specificity of the current system (where you'll see ads for a new frying pan for days after an Amazon search) for a more general approach focused on user anonymity and safety.

At least, that's how Google is presenting its cookie alternative: It's been met with rebukes from other members of the advertising industry as well as outside privacy advocates. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says that the Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) system would group users into potentially harmful targeted silos; the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority said the new system could undermine advertising competition; and the makers of Brave, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge browsers all said they weren't interested in this new paradigm. Eventually Google let go of the FLoC idea, but is still going forward with the Privacy Sandbox grouping technique.

Despite Google's plans to radically alter the way advertising on the web works, at least for users on Chrome and Android, it isn't going to change overnight. “While we design, build and test these new solutions, we plan to support existing ads platform features for at least two years,” the blog post says. In the meantime you can manually delete your Google advertising ID and opt out of personalized ads on any Android phone or tablet.

Microsoft said Tuesday that about 1.4 billion users use either Windows 10 or Windows 11 every month, providing a “powerful on-ramp” for the company's own services.

“Three months in, and we are delighted by the response to Windows 11,” Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said during the company's calendar fourth-quarter 2021 earnings call with analysts. Microsoft reported that revenue for Windows OEM licenses shot up a substantial 25 percent compared to a year ago, prompted by the sudden surge in PC sales during the pandemic. Commercial PC licenses helped the surge, given that they generate more revenue.

Nadella didn't break down the number of users for Windows 11 and Windows 10, respectively, and he used some odd metrics to describe Windows 11's success. “We are seeing more usage intensity and higher quality than previous versions of our operating system,” Nadella said, whatever that means. Microsoft representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nadella did say, that Microsoft Windows captured more market share this quarter, presumably against Apple's MacOS. Otherwise, however, he didn't clarify which OS he was referring to.

Sales of Microsoft's Surface devices also benefited, growing 8 percent after two quarters of negative growth that compared poorly to strong sales at the beginning of the pandemic-fueled 2020 year.

Overall, Microsoft's More Personal Computing, also known as its consumer/PC business, experienced 15 percent growth to $17.5 billion. As it has been for the last few quarters, however, it was Microsoft's Azure cloud business that drove revenue, as cloud services grew 46 percent. Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud business grew more slowly at 26 percent, to $15.9 billion. Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes, which houses Office, grew 19 percent to $15.9 billion. As a company, Microsoft reported profits that grew 21 percent compared to a year ago, to $18.8 billion. Revenue also increased by 20 percent, to $51.7 billion.

Nadella also noted that Windows provides an “on ramp” for Microsoft's own first-party and third-party services. Since adding coupons and price-tracker services within its Microsoft Edge browser, Microsoft has saved consumers $800 million, Nadella said. Edge is tightly integrated into Windows, and doesn't easily allow users to choose another browser. That prompted competitors like Vivaldi to complain that Microsoft was locking in users to Edge. Microsoft is testing versions of its browser that allow for more choice, however.

In gaming, Microsoft said revenue grew 8 percent. Hardware revenue grew by 4 percent, as consumers chased down Series X and S consoles. Microsoft's subscription service, Xbox Game Pass has more than 25 million subscribers, and saw record engagement this past quarter, Microsoft executives said. Over 18 million users have played Forza Horizon 5, and more than 20 million have played Halo Infinite.

Microsoft also said that more than 270 million users actively use Teams per month. Teams is also tightly integrated within Windows 11, to the point it will automatically load when booting your PC, unless blocked from doing so.

Updated at 4:38 PM with additional details.