For nearly two years now, Google has been gradually rolling out a feature to all Chrome users that analyzes their browsing history within the browser itself. This feature aims to replace third-party cookies and individual tracking by categorizing you into an interest category and sharing that category with advertisers. It’s like having a function in your credit card account that evaluates your activities to pass on your spending habits to the advertising industry, so they can send you tailored ads. Ironically, it’s called “Privacy Sandbox”. To check if this is enabled in your Chrome or Chromium browser, simply enter chrome://settings/adPrivacy
into the address bar (yes, the configuration page is called “Ad Privacy”). However, I wouldn’t even want to have this built into my browser, no matter if activated or not. If you’re not a fan of this, you might want to consider switching to Firefox.
That’s just one out of many chrome settings to keep track of. It’s just easier to change browser and pick one that provide decent privacy by default. See Firefox, Brave, Tor Browser.