…Federated Learning of Cohorts, FLoC, technology is designed to be privacy oriented
DuckDuckGo announces its plans to block Google’s newly developed ad tracking tech once they approve it — the Search giant previously revealed its plans to develop its in-house third-party technology to track users for targeting ads.
Meanwhile, Google currently testing is mock-up version of the technology they built to replace third-party cookies while its rival search engine prepares to block Google’s Chrome and its extensions.
Google’s develop a new technology called Federated Learning of Cohorts, technology (FLoC) imprinted with their services that is focused on their privacy which bolsters its tracking tool to direct ads exclusively to its user-base — it is built to replace third party cookies
Still, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, believes otherwise — Google’s privacy tech appears to be harmful, advocating for the DuckDuckGo’s Search engine’s user-base.
Google’s FLoC appears to be complex, the in-depth overview about this tech portrays it functions as the traditional track tool that monitors users’ behaviour and further place ads.
Still, FLoC categorizes users according to their behaviours while grouping them. For contrast, advertisers then target their audience in line with specified groups rather than the usual, tracking users individually.
According to privacy specialists, they acknowledged how effective FLoC can be compared to cookies developed by third parties. These specialists advocating on DuckDuckGo’s behalf claims that FLoC’s loophole can always be inevitable.
This ideology is centred on customer IDs or other sensitive information that is likely to leak or accessed by unauthorized persons. Nonetheless, FLoC can be vulnerable to leak extra user data to an advertiser, while they contact users directly.
According to their blog post, DuckDuckGo seems to be less concerned about rivalry contests with Google. While Google’s FLoC tech and Chrome’s latest extended version is built to restrict other websites and third-party from accessing and tracking user IDs.
Chrome’s updated extension has to be approved by its parent company before rolling out to the market. Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo noted that its search engine will not access FLoC IDs to track advertisers or users — even though users access its search engine via the new extended Chrome version.
Google expected its closest counterpart to contradict its new development — DuckDuckGo services depend on accessing privacy to generate revenue. In due time, FLoC IDs will be generally accepted likewise the previous third-party cookies that existed as a core tracking tool. On the other hand, FLoC appears to be a tool utilized by users and advertisers to block Chrome from tracking its activities.
In sum, Google’s FLoC ID is yet to be fully developed yet other tech companies already feel threatened by its forthcoming existence, planning to block Google’s new autonomous service.
