It is possible to disable FLoC in Google Chrome, which is included in Chrome 93 and above. It is a well known fact that companies on the Internet can use cookies to save local settings and user sessions, and to display targeted advertisements. The method is quite effective, but web technologies are not standing still. Not so long ago Google announced the implementation of the new Federated Learning of Cohorts technology, abbreviated as FLoC, in the Chrome browser.
In the future, it will have to replace cookies. At the same time it will provide a more secure approach for collecting and analyzing data used to display targeted advertising.
What is Floc
Unlike cookies, FLoC does not collect data from a specific user when he visits pages and follows links. Instead, FLoC analyzes his behavior using machine learning algorithms and assigns the user to a specific group. To put it simply, FLoC forms groups of users by interest, on the basis of which ads are displayed. According to Google, this approach provides a higher level of privacy of the user’s personal data, but not everyone agrees with this.
The developers of Brave, Vivaldi and Firefox came up with rather sharp criticism of FLoC. From their point of view, the new technology, on the contrary, creates problems in the field of security. So, as an example, a website that gets your FLoC group ID, gets all of your preferences instantly. Not personal, of course, but for your assigned group. On the other hand, critics of FLoC cannot but be reproached with some bias, mainly due to accusations of Google seeking to obtain financial benefits from the use of new technology, developed and imposed by them.
FLoC is already included in Google Chrome 93, but at this stage it cannot be considered as a full-fledged replacement for cookies. Without cookies ad targeting is still impossible. The company plans to roll-out FLoC gradually, however, there is no guarantee that this particular technology will replace cookies. That’s because Google has other projects of a similar focus. To trust or not to trust FLoC is up to you. If the latter, you can turn off the use of the new technology in the Chrome settings.
Disable FLoC in Google Chrome
- Run Google Chrome.
- Navigate to the internal address
chrome://settings/privacySandbox. - Set the FLoC switch to Off.
- Relaunch the browser.
Instead of disabling only FLoC, you can disable the Privacy Sandbox feature, which includes FLoC.
Also, please note that enabled FLoC does not mean active FLoC. Currently, the new technology does not work in all countries and not for all users.
If you see “Eligible for trial but not activate” in the “Status” box, don’t worry too much for now.
