FLoC is coming — Here’s what we know so far
Earlier this month, Google told us that it won’t use or build alternate identifiers to replace third-party cookies. Instead, it’s going all-in on Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), which will replace cookies as a way to target audiences. The announcement raised concerns from both privacy advocates and advertisers.
Privacy advocates are concerned that FLoC may facilitate fingerprinting and/or enable advertisers to discriminate against audiences. Google has countermeasures planned: a “Privacy Budget” to combat fingerprinting; and Chrome’s FLoC analysis will evaluate whether a cohort may be sensitive (i.e., based on race or sexuality) so that it can reduce correlation. We already know that Google will begin testing FLoC with advertisers beginning in Q2 — I imagine these safety measures will be an important part of that testing.