Google Starts Roll Out Test of FLoC Developer Trial

[engine]

Google has confirmed it's starting rolling out its trial of Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) as a developer origin trial in Chrome.

Keeping in mind the importance of “and,” FLoC is a new approach to interest-based advertising that both improves privacy and gives publishers a tool they need for viable advertising business models. FLoC is still in development and we expect it to evolve based on input from the web community and learnings from this initial trial.

[blog.google...]

What is FLoC
FLoC allows users to remain anonymous and allows targeting by large groups (cohorts), although, it's important to note, users can still remove that and sign in to sites to share personal information.
FLoC does not share individual browsing history with Google or third parties. It does share as part of the cohort.
FLoC and Chrome: Chrome does not create cohorts when visiting sites deemed sensitive (such as medical, political or religious), and the cohort is not used. Sites can opt out of FLoC and the browser will not include visits to that particular site when determining a cohort.

Google has a technical paper on the topic (PDF) [docs.google.com...]
Previous stories
Google Will Not Test FLoC in Europe over GDPR and ePrivacy Directive [webmasterworld.com]
Google's Privacy-First Non-Cookie Based Advertising FLoC Tests Q2, 2021 [webmasterworld.com]

[JS_Harris]

You can erase cookies, can you erase cohorts?

You can visit sites that you would prefer not to be associated with, such as by clicking a link in a news article, is there any granular control possible?

Assigning a group to an individual without some form of taking data from or tracking the individual seems difficult. This also seems to go directly against the other current development of an everything passport to prove who you are online. Are there plans to merge this with new "digital ID wallets" like [ontario.ca...] ?

How will Cohorts work with the following?

Ontario’s digital ID plan - In late 2021 we will begin introducing digital ID (digital identity) – a new, electronic government-issued ID that lets people and businesses prove who they are online.

Digital ID for individuals. As an individual, your digital ID could be used to prove your identity when you:
- check in for virtual medical appointments
- get a birth, marriage or death certificate
- apply for government assistance (such as disability support) or benefits (such as CERB or EI)
- update and show vaccination records
- open a bank account

Digital ID for businesses. As a business, a digital ID could be used when you:
- hire new employees
- prove their identity/credentials or verifying those of other businesses
- open business accounts
- apply for loans, grants, tax credits or benefits
- verify customers’ identity

There is talk of requiring online passports already for various things so there's a lot changing in short order. It's already being rolled out this year so there is no time left for discussing it but hopefully there's time for providing feedback. I worry we're heading into a social scoring system once these tools are online too, that's already a reality in parts of the world with mixed results. I'm wondering how Cohorts will integrate with these changes.

It is just another tool afterall and people find the darndest ways to use their tools.

[goodoldweb]

Knowing what we know about Google today, one will be out of his mind to use the Chrom browser.

Use the Chromium or new Edge Browser(s). Problem solved.

[JorgeV]

Hello,

Knowing what we know about Google today, one will be out of his mind to use the Chrom browser.

Yes, "us", but the average people do not mind, or do not even know, or both. Whatever "we" think, for average people, Google is a famous and sucessful brand, so when it comes to use a browser, most will opt for Chrome. This is the power of a brand.

[not2easy]

They are still in a proof of concept stage, it is not "imminent" due to all the unknowns - not to mention the current efforts to deal with privacy abuses in the big tech companies. It will be a while before any chance of implementation but during testing run-up there will be 'random' browsers selected for testing.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has in-depth information for those with time and interest to learn more about the concept: [eff.org...]

[goodoldweb]

"Yes, "us", but the average people do not mind, or do not even know, or both. Whatever "we" think, for average people, Google is a famous and sucessful brand, so when it comes to use a browser, most will opt for Chrome. This is the power of a brand.Yes, "us", but the average people do not mind, or do not even know, or both. Whatever "we" think, for average people, Google is a famous and sucessful brand, so when it comes to use a browser, most will opt for Chrome. This is the power of a brand."

Don't ever underestimate the "Us" spreading the news. Personally I never miss an opportunity to warn everyone I know about NOT using the Chrome spy browser. In fact, most of my family and friends now use the Edge and/or Chromium browsers (PC's and/or mobile devices).

People tend to trust professional advice when they hear one, make sure you keep giving that advice and lead by example!

I always mention to them that edge and chromium are much faster browsers because they don't make back and forth calls to the Google ad servers for every page they visit. I also mention they can set Google as the default search engine via settings and that it's fine.

And send them to check this link:
[washingtonpost.com...]

www.washingtonpost.com Review Goodbye, Chrome: Google's Web browser has become spy software Our latest privacy experiment found Chrome ushered more than 11,000 tracker cookies into our browser -” in a single week.

[JorgeV]

Hello,

Don't ever underestimate the "Us" spreading the news. Personally I never miss an opportunity to warn everyone I know about NOT using the Chrome spy browser.

Indeed, but the facts are that Google Chrome is around 77 % of market share (Safari : 9%, Firefox 8%, Edge: 6%). There is a very long road, before a significant amount of people leave the Google Chrome ecosystem.

That being said, in charts, I never see a mention of Chromium. So, I wonder if it's counted in Google Chrome users, or , if it's bellow the 0.05 % of Brave.

The (artificial) problem with Chromium , is that, there is no live update, you need to check yourself, and download updates. Also, some proprietary libraries are not included, breaking some sites, especially for some videos (which, in my opinion relies more on poor web devs).

* I took these numbers from : [kinsta.com...]

Global Desktop Browser Market Share for 2022 In