Security News > 2021 > March > Google Will Use 'FLoC' for Ad Targeting Once 3rd-Party Cookies Are Dead
Signaling a major shift to its ads-driven business model, Google on Wednesday unequivocally stated it would not build alternate identifiers or tools to track users across multiple websites once it begins phasing out third-party tracking cookies from its Chrome browser by early 2022.
Over the years, third-party cookies have become the mainstay driving digital ad business, but mounting concerns about data privacy infringement have led major browser vendors such as Apple, Mozilla, Brave, and Microsoft to introduce countermeasures to pull the plug on invasive tracking technology, in turn forcing Google to respond with similar privacy-first solutions or risk losing customer trust.
To that effect, Google has proposed a continually evolving collection of bird-themed ad targeting and measurement methods aimed at supplanting third-party cookies, chief among them being Federated Learning of Cohorts and TURTLEDOVE, which it hopes will emerge the standards for serving ads on the web.
TURTLEDOVE, on the other hand, suggests a new method for advertisers and ad tech companies to target an ad to an audience they had previously built without revealing other information about a users' browsing habits or ad interests.
Google is set to test FLoC-based cohorts publicly later this month, starting with Chrome 89, before extending the trials with advertisers in Google Ads in the second quarter.
In response, Google noted it has taken into account the feedback about browser-centric control by incorporating what it calls a "Trusted server" in FLEDGE to store information about an ad campaign's bids and budgets.