Google FLoC : Why we should be aware of it and block it from TRACKING US!!!
What is Google's FLoC?
How were we shown ads till now?
How other browsers show ads?
Why didn't Google used the same approach till now?
Why FLoC is introduced? And why Google states it superior than the cookie policy?
The other side of the coin!!
How Google itself would be a clear winner with more advantage
How can we protect ourselves?
Conclusion
Larry Page and Sergei Brin created Google as a search engine in mid-98. Since then Google has come a long way and has become one the most evolved or to be specific one of the most essential tech company. It has its hands on every tech device and is competing on every aspect of the tech world. Till date it has become a multinational company with a whopping $320 billion of net worth. And how has it come so far is all because of its advertisement network which comprises of 50% of its net worth. It is one of the biggest advertisement company in the market. But, recently Google introduced FLoC as a new privacy policy towards advertisement, and most web browsers are opposing it. So, why is it so, why we should know about it and what Google actually has in its bag for us, lets find out in this post.
What is Google's FLoC?
As several government agencies and companies were opposing to the use of third party cookies as activity trackers, which tracked your website activities and showed you relevant ads based on your interest. So, in motion of this statement Google introduced FLoC which is Federated Learning of Cohorts. 'Cohorts' means a group of people with shared characteristics, which according to Google means that you will be associated with a group of people having similar interests as you, and then delivering ads on every website that uses Google's FLoC policy based on this group's interest. So, to know this more precisely you will have to know about how ads were delivered earlier. According to Google reports, FLoC achieves atleast 95% of the conversion per dollar spent compared to cookie based advertising.
How were we shown ads till now?
Till now we were shown ads based on third party cookies. Cookies would record your browsing history, your search history and based on that it helped different ad providers to provide with the ad you were interested in. To make it more understandable lets look at an example.
You go to Google and search your preferred topic, let this topic be 'Latest Cars', now you surf the web based on this preference, while you surfed the web on 'Latest Cars' Google preserved your history in the form of cookies and then you would change your preference and move on to another site. This is where the actual game took place. Here the Website you visited is the first party and Google is the third party which would be providing the website and its ad partner with your cookies. The ad partner would be using these cookies and delivering you with ads based of 'Latest Cars'. You'll find this ads with your interest and would sometime click on the ad banner.
Now think this on a larger scale, as Google is everywhere it would record and preserve these cookies from everywhere you go virtually. Maximum people out there are using Android phones, Android is created by google, you go to play store to download apps, you watch videos on Youtube, you write on Google Docs, store your files on Google Drive, and you do much more using Google products. Google stores cookies from these places and uses them to deliver ads. Even the default browser on most android phones is Google Chrome, or the Samsung Browser these it turn store all your search history as cookies. So, Google refers indirectly that "Privacy is just a Myth !!".
How other browsers show ads?
Browsers which are user-first, privacy-first use a completely anonymous method to show ads. The privacy centric browsers such as DuckDuckGo, Tor and Brave always use anonymous methods to show you ads. Their ad delivering policy is more privacy centric. For example,
You browse on the DuckDuckGo and search on 'Latest Cars'. The search engine will deliver you ads based on Latest Cars. You surf different sites but after then you searched for 'Best Phones under 20000' then the engine will show you ads on your search preference and more importantly if you visit a website to see the Best Phones under 20000 you will either find ads based on that topic or any other topic but won't be targeted with ads on Latest Cars.
This approach is what everyone wanted and everyone needed. The user privacy is always a thing that needs to be protected because the user might not want to share his/her interest with everyone.
Why didn't Google used the same approach till now?
Interest of users are their own, they may want it or may not want it to share. This choice completely rests with the user. But, Google does not respects it. If Google as an advertising dominator would undergo through the same approach then it won't be able to provide you with 'Targeted Ads'. This privacy-exploiting approach benefited Google as well as the ad provider as for both it was a win-win situation. Google kept this choice to its place and gave no options to letting you opt out of providing your browsing history information.
Why FLoC is introduced? And why Google states it superior than the cookie policy?
As government pressurized companies from not collecting private information based on a user's private lifestyle and because users were becoming slowly informed about Google's approach, they were migrating to different web browsers. But to maintain such a market share Google had to get its feet off the cookie policy and so it introduced FLoC. Google says that as cookies kept private information based on individuals, FLoC on the other hand will keep the information of a larger group. This means you will be exposed to an ad network in a crowd. Each individual will be given a unique FLoC ID and that will tell Websites about the particular interest of the group you reside and then ads will be delivered to you by an ad network. This as said by google will improve privacy and keep an individual's private information hidden inside a group. It also says that the FLoC's algorithm will not form similar interest groups with no less than a thousand users. Google would renew your interest every week using FLoC's algorithm and then it can associate you with other cohort based on your last week's browsing history. Google has already started this testing on 0.5% of the accounts in the world, which means it is using a million Chrome users as guinea pigs. Though it gives them an option to opt out of it for now but by 2022 Google will enable this setting in all Chrome user accounts and would provide no option to opt out. If you have a website which uses Google's ad network then your website will be automatically added in this project but you can opt out of it.
The other side of the coin!!
Google's Policy is fatal and that is why many browsers and tech companies are opposing it. As a normal user you might think this is completely okay and that it would not harm your privacy at all, it would in turn disguise you in a group of people. But you are missing some of the important part. Let's go through the points -
#1 Our sensitive information would be severely harmed!!
Before FLoC, websites took only a small bit of private information from you to show you ads. When FLoC is enabled, all websites would know much information about you then it actually needs. Each website or app would see a FLoC ID and when you would sign in into the website or app, it would know about your interest. Whether the website or the app shows contextual ads or shows no ads, it would then also be able to see your sensitive information. What you have surfed through other websites would be kept and then it would be shared to this website or the app which might be unsecured or irrelevant and then the website or the application can use your information against you in different ways.
#2 Google will destroy small ad companies and will dominate over the ad market by several folds which means it would make arbitrary decisions and regulations
Google would destroy the small ad companies. Small ad companies which previously worked with small information would see the FLoC ID and then it would not be able to process this huge information because of its small infrastructure. To get out of this disadvantage the small networks has to either increase its infrastructure to process such large amount of information or else it would have to terminate its business. So, at the end this would give Google a monopoly over smaller ad networks and would in turn increase its dominance in the advertising market.
#3 Irrelevant content might be shown to us
FLoC's algorithm would group you with other similar interest surfers. But to fit everyone in this algorithm it has to compromise some preferences and would have to focus on the most important informations. To understand this lets look at an example -
X is a person that is looking for low rated loans and Y is a person that is searching for premium mobile phones and cars. If FLoC puts these two persons in the same cohort where person X's interest might be compromised and then he would see ads based on premium mobile phones and cars this would hurt him and he would react sensitively which will lower his web surfing and he might get depressed.
How Google itself would be a clear winner with more advantage?
Google with its past record has consistently shown us how it has changed its rules and regulation according to its needs and interests. With many privacy policies google has kept doing the wrong and it will keep on doing it. Old Habits Die Hard!!. If we don't take this seriously and continue providing Google with sensitive information then Google might in future change FLoC's algorithm according to its benefit and it would do it internally without anyone knowing it. Google's idea of destroying third party cookies is a privacy-first idea but introducing FLoC, clearly keeps it in a better position, leaving users in a more privacy vulnerable situation. So, in a nutshell Google is not making its policy more privacy centric rather it is only renaming its policy.
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| Steps followed by Google FLoC's algorithm |
Google very well knows that its users are tied in a Google ecosystem and going out of it is very difficult, and we can't deny it either. So, Google would continue to power its monopoly over the poor users.
How can we protect ourselves?
We can protect ourselves by following means:
- Use more privacy centric browsers such as DuckDuckGo, Brave, Tor, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Vivaldi, etc
- Install DuckDuckGo's privacy essentials Chrome extension
Conclusion
Web Browsers such as DuckDuckGo, Tor, Brave and Vivaldi have made notable concerns over the change and made it very clear that they would not let FLoC operate on them. The world's largest CMS service provider, Wordpress has also announced that it will automatically block Google's FLoC on its websites. When the future is becoming more internet friendly, Tech companies should opt for a privacy-first, user-first approach. Google being one of the largest Tech Companies in the world should take a voice on user privacy rather than exploiting it for their own good. The world is moving towards advancements it is our responsibility to stay safe and provide our own sensitive information wisely.
Kudos!!!! An Informative piece. Do Keep writing!!
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