Difference between revisions of "FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts)"
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While FLoC is being marketed as a more privacy-focused advertising system (compared to unhindered third party tracking of Chrome users who make not effort to protect their privacy), it has been met with a great deal of opposition. There are a number of main concerns in regard to this new system. | While FLoC is being marketed as a more privacy-focused advertising system (compared to unhindered third party tracking of Chrome users who make not effort to protect their privacy), it has been met with a great deal of opposition. There are a number of main concerns in regard to this new system. | ||
#FLoC runs in the user's browser, doing the hard work of analytics on the user's device, and then broadcasting the results. Not only are the visitor's interests being captured and distributed, but it is being done by the user's own browser, without the user's explicit consent. | #FLoC runs in the user's browser, doing the hard work of analytics on the user's device, and then broadcasting the results. Not only are the visitor's interests being captured and distributed, but it is being done by the user's own browser, without the user's explicit consent. | ||
| − | #This user data is freely available to every website the browser visits, whether directly (browsing to that site), or indirectly (iframed content, 3rd party scripts, CNAME trackers, etc.) | + | #This user data is freely available to every website the browser visits, whether directly (browsing to that site), or indirectly (iframed content, 3rd party scripts, CNAME trackers, etc.) even if they have no prior knowledge about that visitor, and do not otherwise engage in tracking. |
#Fingerprinting data points | #Fingerprinting data points | ||
#is 1k really enough? | #is 1k really enough? | ||
#3rd party trackers will still track | #3rd party trackers will still track | ||
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==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 17:13, April 28, 2021
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FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) is a targeted advertising technology developed by Google, for the Chromium browser. It is designed to allow a website to perform targeted advertising for anyone who visits their site, but without specifically identifying the individual visitor. When Google released this, they marketed it as a more "privacy-focused" method of targeted advertising, as opposed to using third party trackers.[1]
How it works
With FLoC installed on each users' Chromium browser, the system monitors each person's browsing behavior, and learns their individual interests. That user is then assigned identifiers for specific groups (called "cohorts") of people with similar interests. So for example, someone who's browsing activity shows interest in cats, residential construction, cars, Christianity, Libertarians, and fishing will in this case be assigned six identifiers. When this person visits example.com, FLoC freely informs that website this this visitor is interested in these six things. Then, example.com can display advertisements related to those six topics. Google's goal is to have each FLoC ID used by about 1000 people, so in theory, although a visitor is declaring their interests to every website they visit, this information is not directly tied back to their specific identity.
Controversy
While FLoC is being marketed as a more privacy-focused advertising system (compared to unhindered third party tracking of Chrome users who make not effort to protect their privacy), it has been met with a great deal of opposition. There are a number of main concerns in regard to this new system.
- FLoC runs in the user's browser, doing the hard work of analytics on the user's device, and then broadcasting the results. Not only are the visitor's interests being captured and distributed, but it is being done by the user's own browser, without the user's explicit consent.
- This user data is freely available to every website the browser visits, whether directly (browsing to that site), or indirectly (iframed content, 3rd party scripts, CNAME trackers, etc.) even if they have no prior knowledge about that visitor, and do not otherwise engage in tracking.
- Fingerprinting data points
- is 1k really enough?
- 3rd party trackers will still track