What is Google’s FLoC and Why You Should Block It
Apr. 16, 2021Here, we have explained everything about Google’s FLoC in lucid terms. You can click on the table below and move to the corresponding section with ease.
Google claims that the cohort will have more than a thousand users, so a website won’t be able to identify users individually. Every week, Chrome willgenerate a new FLoC IDbased on your past browsing history and tag you with a similar cohort. Bear in mind, this whole computation of FLoC ID happens locally on your device and stored only on your device. On the face of it, FLoC seems like a decent concept. But there is more to it, so read on to find the issues with Google’s FLoC and why Google decided to build an alternative to third-party cookies.
Now, the emergence ofprivacy-focused browserslike DuckDuckGo, Brave, and Tor is a tell-tale sign of the new direction users are taking to protect their privacy. Not to forget, even the new Chromium Edge has also started blocking some third-party cookies by default. It’s clearthe war is on third-party cookies, and other browser vendors are in no mood to allow these cross-site trackers.
Remember, Google is the market leader in online ads and has the largest ad network on the web. The company gets most of its revenue from ad business, so it was incumbent on Google to provide an alternative. And seeing other browsers putting an unrelenting fight to make third-party cookies irrelevant, Google had to do something to save its business. In summation, the need to bring an alternative to third-party cookies does not seem to protect user privacy. Instead,FLoC is an attempt by Google to save its online ad businessamid a raging privacy war.
The fundamental issue with FLoC is thatusers have to choose between “old tracking” and “new tracking”, as per Bennett Cyphers of EFF. If you are serious about protecting privacy, then it should not come at the cost of choosing between an old and a new system. Instead, your focus should primarily be on abolishing the whole surveillance tech. Critics have repeatedly said that allowing third-party cookies was the web’s biggest mistake. And now, letting it run under a different set of protocols is as harmful as the old standard.
Google’s reasoning is that it wants to stop fingerprinting with FLoC. But the critics warn that the FLoC ID can become one of the data points that third-party cookies employ to identify users. In fact, they fear that the FLoC ID might aid and strengthen an already-powerful user tracking system on the internet.
Further, Google has also announcedPrivacy Sandbox, which will be incorporated into Chrome to protect your FLoC ID. But along with that, it also comes with a lot of services that were earlier used on third-party cookies. For example, Pigin, Sparrow, Pelican, Parrot, etc., are some of the bird-themed standards that have the functions designed to satisfy the advertiser’s needs.
All in all, it seems the FLoC tech is designed especially for advertisers, and protecting user privacy is just an afterthought. Google itselfacknowledgesthatprotecting FLoC ID from fingerprinting is a difficult challenge, and it will look into the issue in the future.
If you want to check if you are part of the FLoC trial,head to this websiteand click the‘Check for FLoC ID’button to find out. The EFF has developed this website to make users aware of whether they are part of Google’s new tracking tech test group.Right now, if you are part of the FLoC trial, you can’t opt out, and that’s a bummer. However, the company plans to offer a toggle to turn on/off FLoC on Chrome in the coming months.
Meanwhile, other privacy-focused browsers likeDuckDuckGo, Vivaldi, and Brave have announced that they will block Google’s FLoC tracking systemon their Chromium builds. Firefox and Safari are not affected by FLoC as they are not built on Chromium. So, Apple users who browse the internet via Safari are safe from Google’s new tracking system.
Microsoft hasn’t officially confirmed whether it will implement FLoC or not in its new Chromium-based Edge browser. But, as per itsrecent statement, the Redmond giant suggested that it might not implement Google’s new tracking system for the sake of user privacy.
The world’s largest CMS service provider, WordPress, has announced that it will alsoautomatically block Google’s FLoC on websites. The upcoming WordPress version 5.8 update will include an additional four-line code to disable Google’s FLoC on websites. That will automatically disable the FLoC system for new WordPress installations. But, admins can override the code to enable it and participate in Google’s test if they choose to.
Everything You Need to Know About Federated Learning of Cohorts by Google
So this is what FLoC is all about and what it means for the web in the coming future. While Google portrays its new tracking technology as a privacy-friendly move, we should dig deeper and learn about its serious implications in the future. Indeed, third-party cookies are the worst and need a replacement but FLoC, although slightly better, seems to be a step in the wrong direction. Anyway, that is all from us. If you want to learn more ways toenhance Google Chrome security, then head over to our detailed guide. And if you have any questions, comment down below and let us know.
Passionate about Windows, ChromeOS, Android, security and privacy issues. Have a penchant to solve everyday computing problems.
