Security News > 2021 > February > Google Moves Away From Diet of 'Cookies' to Track Users
Google is weaning itself off user-tracking "Cookies" which allow the web giant to deliver personalized ads but which also have raised the hackles of privacy defenders.
Last month, Google unveiled the results of tests showing an alternative to the longstanding tracking practice, claiming it could improve online privacy while still enabling advertisers to serve up relevant messages.
Google plans to begin testing the FLoC approach with advertisers later this year with its Chrome browser.
Some kinds of cookies - which are text files stored when a user visits a website - are a convenience for logins and browsing at frequently visited sites.
"Third-party cookies are a privacy nightmare," Electronic Frontier Foundation staff technologist Bennet Cyphers told AFP. "You don't need to know what everyone has ever done just to serve them an ad.".
Cyphers and others have worries about Google using a secret formula to lump internet users into groups and give them "Cohort" badges of sorts that will be used to target marketing messages without knowing exactly who they are.