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Is it truly turned off after taking these measures? Is there anything we can do to verify that Google's Privacy Sandbox is not actively tracking us?

It's reminiscent of turning off Bluetooth and WiFi in the Settings on iPhones, only to find out they still emit radio waves.

A few ways you could verify it's off:

1. Try using the Privacy Sandbox APIs on your own site to confirm they don't work.

2. Examine your Chrome profile to make sure it doesn't contain ad topics or ad measurement data.

3. Sniff network traffic to ensure Chrome is not sending anything sensitive to Google (using SSLKEYLOGFILE so you can decrypt HTTPS connections).

EFF's article ought to be clearer that all of the privacy sandbox logic happens on your own device rather than Google servers.