FLoC will allow people to remain anonymous.
Chrome has begun the origin trials of Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) across US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Philippines. Marshall Vale, a Chrome product manager clarified through tweets that the tests would include Europe “as soon as possible” and that Google and Chrome are “100% committed to the Privacy Sandbox in Europe.”
Within Google Ads, advertiser testing of FLoC could begin Q2 2021. Come April, users will be able to opt out of FLoC and other Privacy Sandbox proposals. Further, “anyone”, including Google, won’t have access to a user’s browsing history with FLoC.
With FLoC, Chrome “won’t create groups that it deems sensitive” and cohorts will be regularly studied to see whether they visit sensitive topic pages. If they are found visiting, those cohorts won’t be used.
[4 minute read]
