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Google’s FLoC Is a Terrible Idea

(www.eff.org)
604 points wyldfire | 6 comments | 04 Mar 21 15:59 UTC | HN request time: 1.1s | source | bottom
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kall ◴[04 Mar 21 17:34 UTC] No.26345311[source]▶
If this actually goes anywhere, I'm kind of excited about it from the perspective of a product developer.

Being able to do content recommendation for fresh visitors without any tracking effort of your own would be pretty cool. It will probably come with a dialog, so users will likely opt out often for ads or on page load, but not if they just clicked "show me movie recommendations" in your app.

replies(2): >>26350443 #>>26351150 #
1. coffeefirst ◴[05 Mar 21 01:20 UTC] No.26351150[source]▶
Won't work.

The proposed designs never expose segments (err, cohorts, whatever) to the page. This machine works for managing targeted advertising in Chrome, and... that's it.

replies(2): >>26351199 #>>26352238 #
2. jrochkind1 ◴[05 Mar 21 01:25 UTC] No.26351199[source]▶
The OP says:

> The draft specification states that a user’s cohort ID will be available via Javascript, but it’s unclear whether there will be any restrictions on who can access it, or whether the ID will be shared in any other ways.

Is this incorrect?

replies(1): >>26351487 #
3. ◴[05 Mar 21 01:54 UTC] No.26351487[source]▶
4. kall ◴[05 Mar 21 03:29 UTC] No.26352238[source]▶
No, they explicitly do.

> cohort = await document.interestCohort()

I mean it‘s a proposal. I‘ll believe it when I can use it, but maybe actually look at the proposal.

replies(1): >>26352579 #
5. coffeefirst ◴[05 Mar 21 04:10 UTC] No.26352579[source]▶
Oh yeah, sorry, I should have clarified: there are a LOT of followup documents that build on it. The reason I think it won't be an option comes from one of those. (I think FLEDGE, but don't have time to check.)

But like you said, we'll see what they actually ship.

replies(1): >>26355735 #
6. kall ◴[05 Mar 21 11:41 UTC] No.26355735{3}[source]▶
Oh that‘s disapointing, if not surprising. Thanks for the clarification. It seems strange that they are willing to give such a boost to small competitors.