Although Google Is Dropping Tracking By Cookies, It Is Testing Its Controversial New Ad Targeting Tech (FLoC) in Millions of Browsers

A few days back, Google launched an “origin trial” of Federated Learning of Cohorts (aka FLoC), its experimental new technology for targeting ads. A switch has silently been flipped in millions of instances of Google Chrome: those browsers will begin sorting their users into groups based on behavior, then sharing group labels with third-party trackers and advertisers around the web. A random set of users have been selected for the trial, and they can currently only opt out by disabling third-party cookies.

Google designed FLoC to help advertisers target ads once third-party cookies go away. During the trial, trackers will be able to collect FLoC IDs in addition to third-party cookies.
That means all the trackers who currently monitor your behavior across a fraction of the web using cookies will now receive your FLoC cohort ID as well. The cohort ID is a direct reflection of your behavior across the web. This could supplement the behavioral profiles that many trackers already maintain.

Future versions of Chrome will add dedicated controls for Google’s “privacy sandbox,” including FLoC. But it’s not clear when these settings will go live, and in the meantime, users wishing to turn off FLoC must turn off third-party cookies as well. Current extensions are not yet disabling or managing FLoC.

I suppose we have to remember that Google is firmly seated in the ads business, nothing is fully free, and we have alternatives - it's up to us.

See Google Is Testing Its Controversial New Ad Targeting Tech in Millions of Browsers. Here’s What We Know.

#technology #tracking #FLoC #EFF #Google #Privacy

Today, Google launched an “origin trial” of Federated Learning of Cohorts (aka FLoC), its experimental new technology for targeting ads. A switch has silently been flipped in millions of instances of Google Chrome: those browsers will begin sorting their users into groups based on behavior, then...

source https://gadgeteer.co.za/although-google-dropping-tracking-cookies-it-testing-its-controversial-new-ad-targeting-tech-floc