The Rabbit Hole of Ads: Google FLoC
It’s no secret that ads have been getting smarter and smarter since the inception of the internet. Targeting algorithms know us better than we do, sometimes to the point of scaring people. However, even an algorithm that predicts your future isn’t the last stop in the march of ad progress. This is the first part of a two-chapter look at what the advertising world has in store for you and your privacy, starting with FLoC.
Shepherd of the FLoC
Those interested in privacy have probably heard about FLoC a million times already but let’s recap: Google announced FLoC — Federated Learning of Cohorts — in 2019 as its future replacement of the traditional, cookie-based ad targeting system. According to the company, this method would be more privacy-friendly and collect less data while remaining at least 95% as effective as the cookie one.
This might sound too good to be true, mostly because it is. The removal of (most) cookies isn’t going to stop tracking, it just changes the way it’s done. Users will be assigned to cohorts, the C in FLoC, based on their browsing history, which Google mines to determine your age, location, interests, dislikes, and more. It’s not going to tell the website you’re, say, Johnny Mnemonic who loves cybersecurity and biohacking, but it will identify you as a member of cohort 1981 that would be interested in ads for those topics. It will serve ads based on that while also including the browsing experience from that website into the bigger picture. Keep browsing and you keep feeding the ad algorithm.
In practice, this changes little for the consumer as you’re still getting profiled and you don’t get a say in the matter. But what it does quite efficiently is give the upper hand to bigger ad agencies. You see, Google doesn’t simplify and dissect the FLoC data. That part is left to companies and their own algorithms, which means those with the most money get the better targeting. Now, do I need to tell you which ad company has the most money and knows how to parse FLoC data?
Yes, Google is crowdsourcing ad data for its own benefit, not just because it can use it to advertise but because that makes its own ad platform more lucrative. Considering that the company has effectively established a monopoly on internet advertising, it’s not hard to see why this is a great move for Google and not a great one for the rest of ad companies.
FLoC Off
The reaction to FLoC has been cold to say the least. From EFF calling it a “breach of user trust” to Google’s main competitor DuckDuckGo saying it will block FLoC on its website and in its search engine. There’s even an updated antitrust lawsuit concerning FLoC, launched by Texas and backed by several other US states. In fairness, there have been some less negative opinions with The Verge, in particular, noting that this could benefit smaller ad companies. Nothing about benefits to users, though, because this new development isn’t about them.
So, FLoC is all about profit and, by most accounts, that profit will be going to Google and not the smaller businesses. It also, despite claiming to be a “privacy sandbox”, makes it easier for websites to fingerprint users in even more precise ways than now.
Google does claim that this fingerprinting will be curbed by FLoC and that this new tracking will be better. But putting blind trust in a big tech company hasn’t worked out so great for any of us up to this point. When profit is on the line and user privacy is the price, tech giants will choose to boost their annual reports over protecting their users.
Stray from the FLoC
In theory, protecting yourself from FLoC and similar tracking across the web, shouldn’t be too difficult. Those who use Firefox as the default browser and have some privacy-oriented addons are pretty much there already. FLoC, as of now, is only being rolled out for some Chrome users. But with Chrome making up 67.14% of desktop browser usage in 2021, it’s not difficult to imagine how many people worldwide are gonna fall victim to this new invention.
What you can do as a single user is to convince friends to use privacy-friendly browsers, explain the concepts behind these things in a way that anyone can understand them and, of course, make your voice heard. With the antitrust lawsuits being brought on state levels, constituents have the power to enact change. It’s time we used it.
