Block FLoC Tracking in Chrome With This DuckDuckGo Extension
Wouldn’t it be great if you could browse the web without worrying about your actions and activities being tracked, uploaded to a profile, and sold to marketers so that they can more effectively target you with ads that can Are you interested in a little more than other things?
While we may never see this day, at least companies like DuckDuckGo are doing their part to fight the latest and greatest in tracking technology. In this case, it’s Google’s decision to promote FLoC – something DuckDuckGo hates so much that it is now adding anti-FLoC tracking capabilities to its Chrome extension . And it’s worth checking out if you want to limit tracking as much as possible while you’re at the Google home.
What is FLoC?
If you haven’t heard of FLoC, I don’t blame you. I cannot count the number of people I know who do not use any blocking software in their browsers; the average person does not know or care how they are being tracked on the net.
Google’s decision to block third-party cookies in Chrome and instead switch to a FLoC-based model, or Federated Cohort Learning, works like this: instead of treating it as someone whose browsing habits (combined with all other data) can be used to de-anonymize you online, instead you will be an unnamed person within a large group of people or cohorts that share similar characteristics.
As the web incubator community group page on GitHub for FLoC describes:
“The browser uses machine learning algorithms to create a cohort based on the sites that a person visits. Algorithms can be based on the URLs of the sites you visit, the content of those pages, or other factors. The basic idea is that these input functions to the algorithm, including the web search history, are stored locally in the browser and are not dumped elsewhere – the browser only provides the generated cohort. The browser provides a good distribution of cohorts so that each one represents thousands of people. The browser can additionally use other anonymization methods such as differential privacy. The number of cohorts should be small to ensure they cannot carry detailed information – the short cohort names (’43A7′) can help clarify this. “
Critics of FLoC argue that the technology creates as many privacy problems as it tries to solve, from what happens when a user’s information (“hidden” in a cohort) is suddenly tied to identifying characteristics such as login to common discriminatory issues that arise. from being able to target differently different groups of people on the Internet in different ways. As Bennett Cyphers of the EFF writes :
“Even with absolute control over what information can be used to target, platforms too often fail to prevent abuse of their technology. But FLoC will use an unsupervised algorithm to create its clusters. This means that no one will have direct control over the grouping of people. Ideally (for advertisers) FLoC will create groups with common interests and behaviors. But online behavior is associated with all sorts of sensitive characteristics – demographics such as gender, ethnicity, age, and income; “Big Five” personality traits; even mental health. It is highly likely that FLoC will also group users along some of these axes. FLoC groups can also directly reflect visits to websites about substance abuse, financial hardship, or trauma survivor support. ”
The ideal solution to this problem is to eliminate tracking entirely – no third-party cookies, no fingerprints, no cohorts, nothing. You will actually have to fight this battle on your own, as companies like Google have a vested interest in playing mid-range (or, aside from that, being a little more advertiser-friendly as it helps keep the lights on).
This is where the DuckDuckGo extension comes into play. Since Chrome is the only browser currently using FLoC – rather, it will use FLoC (it is currently being tested) – all you have to do is make some changes to stay away from tracking technology. If installing an extension is too cumbersome, DuckDuckGo notes that you can try a few other methods to disable FLoC (for now):
- Don’t sign out of your Google account;
- Don’t sync your history data with Chrome or create a sync passphrase ;
- In Google Activity Controls, disable “App and Web Search History” or “Include Chrome History and Activity from Sites, Apps, and Devices that Use Google Services”;
- In your Google Ads settings, turn off “Ads Personalization” or “Also use your actions and information from Google services to personalize ads on Google partner websites and apps to serve ads.”
I’m not a big DuckDuckGo user, but I can’t blame the company’s rating on this. And then there’s the whole “ Google is testing FLoC without asking users to sign up for a trial” aspect that also leaves me at a loss for privacy. (Disable all third-party cookies to opt out of the FLoC trial if you are registered – although this will likely disrupt your internet experience, so you might be better off using a different browser entirely for now .)
I don’t foresee the future without FLoC, but if you’re a Chrome fan, you can at least support yourself for the next big leap into your privacy. And I can’t wait for someone to make an extension that will tell you if the website you are visiting is using FLoC or abandoning it.