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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

#171

Post by jillesvangurp »

Done, just added the the header to my .htaccess. No big deal. 1 minute work.

In general a good idea to just be on top on what headers your web site actually sends and generally know what you are doing with things like cookies, etc. on behalf of your users.

That's already something you need to do and be on top off for legal reasons. Just because lots of website maintainers are kind of indifferent/hands off/sloppy/ignorant on this front does not mean it's OK for you to be that way. This is just another thing to take a conscious decision about and pay attention to. Things that you are in any case supposed to know and pay attention to. Comes with the job of running a website. Your content, your problem to deal with. Or not. Normal due diligence. Should be business as usual.

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

#172

Post by qweerty »

aledalgrande wrote: post #74
jedwhite wrote: post #8

Add a simple header to block FLoC on your website (fortunately): `permissions-policy: interest-cohort=()` It's only deployed on a test set of Chrome browsers so far, and it does create a warning message on browsers that don't support it. [1] [1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66997942/error-with-perm... Edit to note support for blocking this!

That works until it breaks or Google deprecates it and then ooops, you're included in FLoC too! :/

Just block Chrome users, nothing of value lost.

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

#173

Post by robin_reala »

EMM_386 wrote: post #112
jedwhite wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the W3C Federated Learning of Cohorts Draft Community Group Report, 13 April 2021, Paragraphs 3 & 7.1.1: "The interest cohort API lives under the Document interface since the access permission is tied to the document scope, and the API is only available if the document is in secure context." and "The page can opt itself out of the interest cohort computation through the "interest-cohort" policy-controlle…

Did you intentionally leave out the first sentence of 7.1.1? > By default, a page is eligible for the interest cohort computation if the interestCohort() API is used in the page. I'm certainly not defending FLoC, I've been using Firefox for 20 years. But creative editing isn't called for.

High percentages of pages are using GA, and it would be trivial for GA to start calling document.interestCohort() at an indeterminate point in the future. Better safe than sorry.

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

#174

Post by syntactic-sugar »

ehsankia wrote: post #63
dcow wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

- FLoC is still far better than third party cookies I'd take issue with 'far' better, and it has the additional problem of turning the privacy issue in to a moving target. How long did it take to get the wider public and legislators moving on tracking cookies? Now it's a similar issue, just it's called FLoC and its code on your own machine doing the spying.

- A world without advertising Super disagree that this at all an issue. Most of the revenue that gets eliminated is for stuff that people wont pay for anyway, and I question its value if that's the case. Personally I think all advertising is an utter blight, and couldn't care less if it goes away forever and takes its revenue with it. It will be a struggle for a while, and many small sites will fall. The stuff that will be left is stuff that's hopefully worth the money people pay for it, or run as a passion project.

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

#175

Post by nerdponx »

robin_reala wrote: post #173
EMM_386 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you intentionally leave out the first sentence of 7.1.1? > By default, a page is eligible for the interest cohort computation if the interestCohort() API is used in the page. I'm certainly not defending FLoC, I've been using Firefox for 20 years. But creative editing isn't called for.

High percentages of pages are using GA, and it would be trivial for GA to start calling document.interestCohort() at an indeterminate point in the future. Better safe than sorry.

It's safe to assume that all Google services will require FLoC by default (Analytics, Firebase, etc). Time to switch.

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

#176

Post by [deleted] »

nirui wrote: post #170

Curious. How many of you actually brought something just because a machine/stranger recommended it to you? For me, it's almost never. I watch YouTube a lot, as a free tier user, of course. When a video starts to play, all my focus is automatically dead-locked on the "Skip Ad" button, and sometimes "Skip trial". It's a game for me now to see how fast I can tap the "Skip". As for the content of the Ad, well, usually I…

[deleted]

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

#178

Post by roody15 »

dannyw wrote: post #15

Let me get this straight: even if my site has no ads or trackers, Chrome will now use my visitors data for advertising and surveillance??? Does anyone else see FLoC as worse than the current state we're in?

Yes it is absolutely worse. The very notion that we need a identification profile that tracks are behavior is ridiculous. Contextual advertising works. If you visit a blog that covers tech hardware... advertisers can pay to put ads here or PC parts etc. If you visit a website that covers hiking trails .. advertisers can buy ads here for camping gear etc.

It is utter ridiculous to think we need to be tracked from site to site and profiled to this degree.

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

#179

Post by ripdog »

nirui wrote: post #170

Curious. How many of you actually brought something just because a machine/stranger recommended it to you? For me, it's almost never. I watch YouTube a lot, as a free tier user, of course. When a video starts to play, all my focus is automatically dead-locked on the "Skip Ad" button, and sometimes "Skip trial". It's a game for me now to see how fast I can tap the "Skip". As for the content of the Ad, well, usually I…

What's really curious is that you aren't using ublock origin. Life's too short to be harassed by marketing.

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

#180

Post by roody15 »

Very dystopian to think Google is normalizing the idea enabling an ad tracking profile built into the browser itself.

The very notion that users need to be tracked and fingerprinted/profiled from site to site is asinine.

Advertising worked before the concept of tracking on the web. Companies simply paid for contextual ads based on the site. For example visit a site that covers college basketball and advertisers would pay to put ads here for sports gear, sports equipment etc, Go to a site that covers how to keep a nice lawn and advertisers would pay to place ads for mowers, fertilizers, etc.

The very idea that it is normal to have a specific adverting profile assigned to you to track you all over the web is disturbing.

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