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FLoC is a granular identifier that groups users into cohorts of a few dozen thousand based upon their recent browsing history, allowing advertisers to uniquely

FLoC is a granular identifier that groups users into cohorts of a few dozen thousand based upon their recent browsing history, allowing advertisers to uniquely identify users with only a few additional bits of information _and_ more easily collaborate to identify a user's browsing history. That wasn't hard.

crazypython 6y ago
I just don't like how FLoC was implemented. No opt-in or opt-out consent. Written completely by Google employees. Not approved by Privacy Interest Group, Web Technical Architecture Group, or WICG. No control over which cohort you are in, despite being able to add this feature. If it was complemented with a Privacy Budget API– each privacy-losing API call costs budget and there is a limit– to eliminate other factors for fingerprinting and IDing that you can combine with FLoC to unique track people– thus giving advertisers complete browsing history– then I'd reconsider. Another thing is webmasters can opt-out of FLoC through a header. But many webmasters don't control headers... And on top of the practical consequences of its implementation.... not good.
- izacus 6y ago
  How exactly could it be implemented though? EFF and Firefox immediately started a session attacking anything similar to it and demanding that ALL targeting ads stop. There doesn't seem to be space for dialog or a common standard here, either Google does it or they fail and Firefox and privacy wins the world!
  - ev1 6y ago
    What ever happened to non-tracking contextual ads? If I browse stackoverflow I'm probably looking for some saas, or tech related, or a react training course on a react question. If I browse game sites maybe I want a MMORPG promo or time card sale. I don't want to see an ad to buy more toilets after having purchased a toilet once a month ago that is supposed to last decades. On every single site. For the next year.
robertlagrant 6y ago
>FLoC is a granular identifier that groups users into cohorts of a few dozen thousand based upon their recent browsing history, allowing advertisers to uniquely identify users with only a few additional bits of information _and_ more easily collaborate to identify a user's browsing history. > That wasn't hard. It also doesn't explain why that's worse than the current practice of directly identifying individuals. Which is the hard bit.
- tmottabr 6y ago
  in practice it is the same thing.. they will still be able to identify you individually.. floc actually might make it easier by first assigning you to group of just a few thousands other people.. that mean they just need a few extra bits of fingerprinting to identify you uniquely from there.. also previously they could only track were you had being if there was an ad in that page or if it had a social media button basically they could store a cookie or run a script in a specific context of a specific site and now they knew you visited that site.. now with floc they can track you everywhere, even sites that do not have ads or buttons will be included when calculating your floc..

crazypython 6y ago

I just don't like how FLoC was implemented. No opt-in or opt-out consent. Written completely by Google employees. Not approved by Privacy Interest Group, Web Technical Architecture Group, or WICG. No control over which cohort you are in, despite being able to add this feature. If it was complemented with a Privacy Budget API– each privacy-losing API call costs budget and there is a limit– to eliminate other factors for fingerprinting and IDing that you can combine with FLoC to unique track people– thus giving advertisers complete browsing history– then I'd reconsider. Another thing is webmasters can opt-out of FLoC through a header. But many webmasters don't control headers... And on top of the practical consequences of its implementation.... not good.

izacus 6y ago
How exactly could it be implemented though? EFF and Firefox immediately started a session attacking anything similar to it and demanding that ALL targeting ads stop. There doesn't seem to be space for dialog or a common standard here, either Google does it or they fail and Firefox and privacy wins the world!
- ev1 6y ago
  What ever happened to non-tracking contextual ads? If I browse stackoverflow I'm probably looking for some saas, or tech related, or a react training course on a react question. If I browse game sites maybe I want a MMORPG promo or time card sale. I don't want to see an ad to buy more toilets after having purchased a toilet once a month ago that is supposed to last decades. On every single site. For the next year.

robertlagrant 6y ago

>FLoC is a granular identifier that groups users into cohorts of a few dozen thousand based upon their recent browsing history, allowing advertisers to uniquely identify users with only a few additional bits of information _and_ more easily collaborate to identify a user's browsing history. > That wasn't hard. It also doesn't explain why that's worse than the current practice of directly identifying individuals. Which is the hard bit.

tmottabr 6y ago
in practice it is the same thing.. they will still be able to identify you individually.. floc actually might make it easier by first assigning you to group of just a few thousands other people.. that mean they just need a few extra bits of fingerprinting to identify you uniquely from there.. also previously they could only track were you had being if there was an ad in that page or if it had a social media button basically they could store a cookie or run a script in a specific context of a specific site and now they knew you visited that site.. now with floc they can track you everywhere, even sites that do not have ads or buttons will be included when calculating your floc..