Google shutters FLoC, its controversial ad tech for replacing third-party cookies, and proposes Topics, which categorizes the sites users visit into 300+ topics

TechCrunch 2022-01-26 Frederic Lardinois

Context & Ripple Effects

Google’s cookie-replacement effort had progressed from a claimed privacy-conscious cohort model to a developer origin trial in Chrome, but the approach drew criticism for introducing its own privacy issues and encountered a GDPR-related halt to European testing.

The move to Topics is therefore a redesign of the Privacy Sandbox’s targeting mechanism, replacing FLoC’s cohorts with a browser-generated taxonomy of more than 300 browsing categories.

First-order effects

Developers and ad buyers working with FLoC must redirect their Privacy Sandbox integrations and targeting tests toward Topics.
Google ends a cohort-based replacement that it had positioned as approaching cookie-ad effectiveness, making its category system the active proposal for browser-mediated behavioral targeting.

Second-order effects

European privacy scrutiny shifts from FLoC’s cohort construction to whether Topics’ browsing-derived categories can satisfy the concerns that stopped FLoC testing there.
Advertisers evaluating post-cookie targeting must assess a more standardized category signal rather than FLoC’s user cohorts, reducing continuity with prior FLoC experiments.

Third-order effects

If Topics becomes the adopted Privacy Sandbox mechanism, Chrome’s classification system will become a central layer in how behavioral ad signals are defined and accessed after third-party cookies.

The trend: Browser makers are moving ad targeting away from third-party identifiers and toward browser-controlled, privacy-framed audience signals.

Discussion

@markosaric Marko Saric on x
Google FLoC is dead! Google has decided to scrap FLoC after “a bunch of great feedback from the community, as I'm sure you know” 🥳 https://twitter.com/...
@othermaciej @othermaciej on x
Informative thread from Robin. I agree with him that a focus on “transparency & control” is often a sign of placebo privacy. https://twitter.com/...
@googlechrome Chrome on x
Introducing Topics 👋 Topics is a new proposal within the Privacy Sandbox initiative. It's designed to help preserve your privacy while enabling sites to show you relevant ads. Learn how it works: https://blog.google/... https://twitter.com/...
@brave @brave on x
Today Google announced the Topics API, a revision of FLoC. Find out why we think this is more of the same, is harmful to users' privacy, and serves to consolidate Google's dominant position in ad tech without addressing core privacy issues: https://brave.com/...
@nytimestech @nytimestech on x
Google's plan to eliminate cookies by the end of next year is a potentially huge shift for the digital advertising industry, though it is not clear if the new method will be any less alarming to advertisers and regulators. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@brave @brave on x
Peter Snyder, director of privacy at Brave, said the changes with Topics did not address the core issues with Google's previous proposal, in “Google introduces a new system for tracking Chrome browser users.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
Some thoughts from me having now read Google's post. Google is simply preserving its ability to mine browsing history across the web and our lives and leverage this data for its own financial interests. It doesn't matter if the targeting is restricted by time or ‘topics.’
@ireneista @ireneista on x
so Google FLoC was the adtech thing that we waited a year after we left for them to announce it, in order to criticize it
@maxwinebach Max Weinbach on x
Targeted ads (that don't require me to sell my soul to Google/Facebook) are good and I'll stand by that for the rest of my life.
@maxwinebach Max Weinbach on x
Targeted ads actually bring value to people seeing them, generic ones do not. Generic ads also make it a game of “whoever has the most money to pay for ads will win” game compared to targeted ones.
@hashtagmolly @hashtagmolly on x
@jason_kint They're only reporting on it this way because it affects them. They don't put nearly as much critical thinking into pieces on the overall economy, poverty, wages, healthcare, etc.
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
By broadly sharing these new dossiers of our most recent web activity and offering no ability for websites to curtail Google's tracking, Google continues to treat websites and apps as interchangeable commodities - something very much in line with its monopoly interests.
@jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x
No, it's a new way to target advertising. Google introduces a new system for tracking Chrome browser users. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@robinberjon Robin Berjon on x
Google's blog post doesn't start off very well. “Transparency and control” sounds great, but it's what companies say when they don't want privacy. It means “we know we're doing things you won't like, that we've set a default you don't want, and that most of you won't change it.” …
@brokep Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi on x
Interesting news, Google found a way to use their enormous influence to make it even bigger, but claiming it's to protect the users. Users in this case being the people they sell as sheep to their customers. https://twitter.com/...
@adsliaison @adsliaison on x
2/4 The browser determines a handful of topics like Fitness or Travel based on the past week's browsing history. When the user visits a participating site, the browser shares 3 topics, one from each of the past 3 weeks, with the site & its advtg partners to serve relevant ads.
@lockheimer @lockheimer on x
🍪s are messy because they leave crumbs...on couches, and online. Topics API puts you, the user, in control. More here: https://blog.google/...
@pbannist Paul Bannister on x
Some quick thoughts (from an advertising perspective, not privacy) around Google's new “Topics” API that replaces FLoC in the Privacy Sandbox. The full proposal is https://github.com/... and worth a read as it isn't too long and contains lots of good info. 1/ https://twitter.com/…
@chrismessina @chrismessina on x
I've been skeptical of #FLoC — largely for its ambition to replace cookies (which seems on the order of @SlackHQ aspiring to replace email). Still, #FLoC's evolution into the #TopicsAPI is worth a look — and may better balance privacy and utility. https://github.com/... https://t…
@mmasnick Mike Masnick on x
This is actually really big news that seems to be getting very little attention. https://twitter.com/...
@mathewi Mathew Ingram on x
Google kills off its FLoC standard (Federated Learning of Cohorts) and I'm convinced a big reason why is someone finally realized its name was an abomination https://techcrunch.com/...
@techjournalist Sean Kerner on x
OH great...and is Topics really all that much different than FLoC? (spoiler alert: not really...) https://twitter.com/...
@v21 V Buckenham on x
it's almost as if there's a conflict of interest in having the company that makes the browser & the company that sells ads be the same company https://twitter.com/...
@adsliaison @adsliaison on x
4/4 What's next: Chrome will launch a trial soon for website developers and the advtg industry to test & provide feedback on Topics. We'll also have more to share on FLEDGE & other proposals later this week. Check out the Topics API technical explainer: https://github.com/...

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