Birds of a feather FLoC together

Birds of a feather flock together is an English proverb, meaning that beings of similar type, interest, personality, character, or another distinctive attribute tend to mutually associate (Wiki). And Google is trying to find real sense out of it. We all know that Google has announced blocking of 3rd party cookies on Chrome browser from 2023 which it uses for surveillance-based advertising. These 3rd party cookies have been following us around the web, building our activity profile and informing advertisers. Getting rid of these cookies is a major boost for privacy of individuals on the internet.

The death of the Cookie

Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) is Google’s alternative to 3rd party cookies, that groups users into “cohorts.” It is a new way that different browsers can enable interest-based advertising. Instead of leaving personally identifiable cookies, FLoC runs locally and assigns a FLoC ID and analyzes our browsing behavior to group us with a few thousand other people into a cohort of individuals with similar interests.

The browser uses ML algorithms to develop a cohort based on the websites that we visit. These algorithms might be based on the URLs of sites visited, or the content on those pages, or other such factors. The browser also ensures that cohorts are well distributed, so that each represents thousands of people. Google displays this FLoC ID to everyone we interact with on the web and that cohort is specific enough to allow advertisers to show us relevant ads based on our interests, but without being so specific that it allows marketers to identify us personally.

No answer is a loud answer

However, few (rather many) questions need to be answered while this Proof of Concept is trialled.

Individual people's browsing behavior changes over time. How will Google ensure that their cohort will change too, and also stabilize the algorithm simultaneously. The FLoC will definitely have to be updated regularly to continue to have advertising utility. Afterall, that’s the intent from Google.

Also, it will be interesting to see how Google will restrict targeting users based on legally restricted content, defined as sensitive interest categories like users under 13 in personalized advertising, restricted drug terms, clinical trials recruitment, alcohol and location-based gambling or for that matter even personal hardships like health, abuse, trauma, relationships and negative financial results in times of adversity? I also consider identity and belief systems to be profoundly personal and intricate, being highly dependent on diversity of cultural norms.

It is clear that FLoC will never be able to prevent all the misuse all time. There will be categories that are sensitive but weren't predicted.?

As Google’s product manager for Privacy Sandbox, Marshall Vale said, “Excited because we absolutely need a more private web, and we know third-party cookies aren’t the long-term answer.?Worried because today many publishers rely on cookie-based advertising to support their content efforts, and we had seen that cookie blocking was already spawning privacy-invasive workarounds (such as fingerprinting) that were even worse for user privacy. Overall, we felt that blocking third-party cookies outright without viable alternatives for the ecosystem was irresponsible, and even harmful, to the free and open web we all enjoy.”

Meanwhile, users like me would definitely prefer to just browse the web without seeing ads without having to worry about my privacy.

As a marketer someone who has relied on third-party cookies for marketing success, what steps will you take to adapt to this huge change in reaching prospective customers, personalizing engagements, managing campaigns and measuring performance?

Do share your thoughts and watch this space for my next article on How can marketers thrive in a possibly cookie-less future??