Cookie Fight

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Article from Issue 251/2021
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Back in the May 2021 issue, I reported on Google's effort to replace third-party tracking cookies with a new alternative they call Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). New developments have added new folds of interest to this story.

Dear Reader,

Back in the May 2021 issue, I reported on Google's effort to replace third-party tracking cookies with a new alternative they call Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). The company's FLoC initiative replaces tracking cookies with an alternative technology that removes the power of third-party vendors while still sustaining, and perhaps enhancing, Google's own ability to target ads for ad buyers. New developments have added new folds of interest to this story. Time will tell whether these events will actually make a difference to the browser industry, but they are certainly worthy of attention.

First of all, Google announced a delay in their planned deployment of FLoC. Several major websites and ad vendors have denounced FLoC as a bad idea and a naked power grab by Google, and some commentators have speculated that the negative response is one of the reasons for the delay. It is unclear what they think one year would do to improve this negative response, unless Google is actually redesigning the system to appease its critics, which doesn't sound like Google. The other reason for the delay is that the EU has launched an antitrust investigation into Google's plan. The regulators' argument is that Google is an ad vendor, and Google the ad vendor should not be able to use the market power of the Google Chrome browser to enhance its position and eliminate rivals. (If you think this sounds a lot like the antitrust claims against Microsoft back in the 1990s, you are correct.)

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