# Topics API **Domain:** Advertising and interest inference **Doc Type:** Developed System Node **Maturity:** Developed **Collection:** [[collections/Gamification|Gamification Collection]] ## Definition The **Topics API** is a Privacy Sandbox mechanism for interest-based advertising without third-party cookies. A browser derives a small set of human-readable interest categories from recent activity and may return topics to eligible callers under defined observation and time-window rules. ## Significance Topics makes categorization visible as an administration layer: activity becomes a label; the label becomes an advertising signal; and the user is represented through a restricted taxonomy. On-device computation changes data flow but does not eliminate questions about consent, misclassification, or category power. ## Sources - Privacy Sandbox, [Topics API for Web](https://privacysandbox.google.com/private-advertising/topics/web) - Google, [Introducing Topics](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/chrome/get-know-new-topics-api-privacy-sandbox/) ## Routes [[wiki/FLoC|FLoC]] · [[wiki/reCAPTCHA|reCAPTCHA]] · [[wiki/Moonshot (CVE Organization)|Moonshot]]