Google is “hiding and buying time to regroup,” Brave says, “to consolidate its control over web tracking.” “Nothing has been decided yet.”īut what has been decided is that third-party cookies are here to stay, at least for the next couple of years, probably longer if Google can’t find a way out. 'We are always exploring options for how to make the Privacy Sandbox proposals more private, while still supporting the free and open web,” Google told me, when I asked about the surprising IETF admission. With third-party trackers still in place, with FLoC’s failure, and with no definite plans for improved technology, there is no tangible end in sight to fingerprinting on Chrome.

But the reality for you as Chrome users is much more serious. Google’s delay was dressed up in the regulatory concerns that had also been triggered by FLoC, and whether this would lead to undue control for Google over the advertising ecosystem. Google would inevitably control the entire process, and advertisers would inevitably pay to play. Instead, you’re presented as a member of Cohort X, from which advertisers can infer what you’ll likely do and buy from common websites the group members visit. So, you’re not 55-year-old Jane Doe, sales assistant, residing at 101 Acacia Avenue. Rather than target you as an individual, FLoC assigns you to a cohort of people with similar interests and behaviors, defined by the websites you all visit. It turns out that building a wall around only half a chicken coop is not especially effective-especially when some of the foxes are already hanging around inside. It’s this unhappy situation that’s behind the failure of FLoC, Google’s self-heralded attempt to deploy anonymized tracking across the web. And any new technology simply adds to that complexity and cannot exist in isolation.

There is already a complex spider’s web of trackers and data brokers in place. But the issue is that even Google’s staggering level of control over the internet advertising ecosystem is not absolute. Google’s Privacy Sandbox is supposed to fix this, to serve the needs of advertisers seeking to target users in a more “privacy preserving” way.

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