As privacy issues in online advertising draw attention around the world, Google has announced that it will phase out support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Therefore, Google has newly proposed a privacy sandbox technology for interest-based advertising, commonly known as “FLoC.”
Privacy Sandbox is a concept that delivers appropriate advertisements to users while preserving privacy. Is the new technology proposed by Google an effective alternative to third-party cookies?
In this article, we will introduce a new technology that supports Google ads instead of cookies.
Reference: Google “Towards a future of online advertising that prioritizes privacy”
Breaking away from increasingly regulated cookies
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In January 2020, Google announced plans to phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome by 2022. Third-party
cookies
are cookies that are issued by a domain other than the site you visited.
Third-party cookies keep track of your site browsing history, allowing us to display ads that are relevant to you. However, since the behavior history on the web is collected without the user’s knowledge, there is a growing movement to regulate it from the perspective of privacy issues.
In response to the wave of cookie regulations, Google is developing an effective technology to replace third-party cookies while ensuring user privacy. Google has announced that its privacy sandbox technology for interest-based advertising, called FLoC, is nearly as effective as cookie-based approaches.
From here, we will explain Google’s new advertising API “FLoC” and the measures to protect user privacy.
(*) API: An acronym for “Application Programming Interface.” A mechanism that allows software functions to be shared with external parties.
What is the new technology “FLoC” that supports Google ads?
Google’s new technology, FLoC, stands for “Federated Learning of Cohorts.” Simply put, it is a group of users with the same attributes generated by machine learning. This technology allows advertisers to target users without using third-party cookies.
FLoC is a system that divides users with similar interests into large groups and delivers highly relevant advertisements to these groups. Google explains that it protects an individual’s web history by hiding them “in the crowd” and further processing only within the device. By changing the target of information collection from “individual users” to “groups with similar interests,” it is no longer possible to identify individuals and protect user privacy.
According to a verification of FLoC technology conducted by Google, it was found that advertisers can expect a “95% or more conversion rate per dollar invested compared to cookie-based advertising”, and Google believes that FLoC is an effective technology as an alternative to cookies. I emphasized that. Going forward, Google Ads will begin using FLoC-based group verification, giving advertisers more opportunities to experiment with new technology.
Reference: Google “Towards a future of online advertising that prioritizes privacy”
Protecting user privacy from opaque technology
Fingerprinting is one of the opaque technologies that threaten user privacy. Fingerprinting is a method of identifying browsers without using cookies, and has been attracting increasing attention due to the trend of moving away from cookies.
According to Google, a critical purpose of the Privacy Sandbox is to develop technologies that protect individual privacy from opaque technologies that are hidden from users. As an anti-fingerprinting measure, Chrome has released “Gnatcatcher,” which hides IP addresses from website hosts. However, if there is a need to access an IP address for a legitimate purpose such as preventing unauthorized use, we will guarantee access after conducting authentication and screening.
As fingerprints have gained attention as an alternative to cookies, browsers such as Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari are strengthening their fingerprint countermeasures in parallel with the move to eliminate cookies. Various measures are being taken to protect privacy so that everyone can browse websites with peace of mind.
Reference: Google “Latest progress on privacy sandbox initiatives”
summary
◆Google has announced plans to phase out support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser by 2022, and is developing effective technology to replace cookies while ensuring user privacy.
◆Google’s newly proposed “FLoC” is a privacy sandbox technology for interest-based advertising. According to Google’s testing, FLoC was nearly as effective as cookie-based approaches.
◆Fingerprinting is attracting attention as an alternative to cookies, and each browser is strengthening measures to prevent fingerprinting in addition to cookies.