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Opting Your Website Out of Google's FLoC Network

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Re: Opting Your Website Out of Google's FLoC Network

#61
post #7

Why isn't this opt-in? I'm sick of having to add yet another config option every time some Web giant decides it is OK to abuse my website and my visitors.

We should make this opt-in, by emitting the header by default in Apache and nginx and requiring special configuration to remove the header.

Re: Opting Your Website Out of Google's FLoC Network

#63
post #4

How does it benefit website owners to opt out?

Presumably things that promote a healthy internet also benefit website owners since their sites exist on the internet.

That sounds like people arguing that nuclear energy is a bad solution to climate change because it's not perfect and technically not renewable.

- FLoC is still far better than third party cookies

- As much as we'd love to live in a world without advertising, 95% of the internet wouldn't exist without it.

- If we are going to have advertising, I'd much rather have FLoC than third party cookies

Re: Opting Your Website Out of Google's FLoC Network

#64
post #27

Waiting for google to make this a ranking factor for SEO like they did with amp.

Do you know if the algorithm favours sites with GA as a positive SEO ranking factor? or am I going into tin hat territory here?

No, if anything it will affect your site negtivly because it will make your site slightly slower. I suggest ignoring the tinfoil hat SEO community and follow the official Google guidelines.

Re: Opting Your Website Out of Google's FLoC Network

#65
post #7

Why isn't this opt-in? I'm sick of having to add yet another config option every time some Web giant decides it is OK to abuse my website and my visitors.

> Why isn't this opt-in?

Who would opt in if it was?

What benefit would there be to opting in?

Unless Google make it a benefit in search rankings in which case some (possibly many) will for SEO purposes, bit still not enough I'd wager (and the balance would be such that lower quality sites, that prioritise SEO over actually useful content, would be the majority of those that went for it).

This feels a bit like way-back-when, when BT and a couple of other UK ISPs toyed with a system that would insert ads into web content, sometimes replacing existing ads, simultaneously bothering their users (to make money out of them on top of existing subscription payments), screwing site runners (being associated with ads they had no control or even knowledgeless knowledge of, and potentially losing ad revenue), and screwing other advert providers.

Re: Opting Your Website Out of Google's FLoC Network

#66
post #55
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the state of affairs with the mobile world is the worst. I can't help but think that Android was the worst disaster that happened to software industry. Android corrupted the ethos of FOSS, decimated all hopes for privacy, contributed to destroying the environment, stripped users of freedom of choice. I think it'll take a very special group of people to reverse the tide.

Can you elaborate on why you think Android is a disaster? Particularly the environmental aspect and freedom of choice. If android didn't exist then iOS might be the only major mobile OS, so in that sense at least it seems to be good that Android exists. It would be much better if it wasn't widely used as a carrier for Google's ecosystem and spyware, of course.

Most of the people outside the US cannot afford an iOS device, so my guess is that missing Android there would be something else (Blackberry ? Windows Mobile ? who knows how it would have gone)

Re: Opting Your Website Out of Google's FLoC Network

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current state with third-party cookie tracking is terrible. This is terrible in a different way. It gives Google even more control over the ad-tech industry. Rather than a diversity of ad-tech kings using third-party cookies to track people and invade privacy, this becomes the "One Ring to Rule Them All" that makes Google even more dominant in ad-tech, while allowing them to pretend that they care about privacy a…

What about FLoC gives Google "even more control"? Isn't it something any ad-company can use? Maybe I don't understand how it works, but from what I've read, any website has the exact same access as Google does to the data.

It's about writes, not reads. With cookies, the tracking networks get to decide what data to store, and they're bounded by what browser APIs allow. FLoC data is computed by Chrome itself, so Google and only Google gets to decide what data is exposed, and it has full access to your browsing behavior even if you're blocking (or visiting sites that don't use) trackers.

Re: Opting Your Website Out of Google's FLoC Network

#68
post #7

Why isn't this opt-in? I'm sick of having to add yet another config option every time some Web giant decides it is OK to abuse my website and my visitors.

It is. If you’re not calling ‘document.interestCohort()’ or serving ads from an ad network on your page then FLoC does nothing. The purpose of this permission is to prevent embedded third-party content from using FLoC.

Re: Opting Your Website Out of Google's FLoC Network

#69
post #46
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excluding a page is a manual process however, requiring to set the header mentioned in the blog post. So website owners have to explicitly opt-out of FLoC.

Web server software maintainers should enable the header by default. Bugs should be filed against those with the wrong default.

Web server software should absolutely not add a bunch of garbage to work around some ad company's shenanigans.
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