As the 2023 deadline approaches for the replacement of third-party cookies, Google is looking for an alternative that must satisfy advertisers, users and regulators alike. The firm has just presented Topics, which is part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative.
This new approach should replace the FLoC, yet tipped to take over from third-party cookies.
The FLoC did not last long
The FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) identified Internet users according to the cohort, that is to say a group of people sharing similar interests, to which they belonged. However, this technique was far from unanimous. It is indeed considered to be intrusive for privacy by allowing advertisers to more easily identify Internet users thanks to the browser fingerprint. This is a tool used by sites to obtain specific device information: it can expose information about demographics, and therefore lead to discriminatory targeted advertisements.
As a result, US and UK regulators voiced their reluctance to put FLoC into practice, and the blow came from Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi and Edge all announcing that they refuse to use this approach. Against the wall, Google has just proposed another advertising tracking technique.
A much more respectful approach to privacy according to Google
Topics focuses on user interests. Thus, the browser determines several subjects, like ” Fitness » or « travel and transportation according to the user’s browsing history. These themes are then considered as the Internet user’s main areas of interest and allow advertisers to target their advertisements according to these: When you visit a participating site, Topics selects only three topics, one topic from each of the past three weeks, to share with the site and its advertising partners. “Explains the Mountain View firm in a blog post. For now, 350 themes are available, but several hundred should later be added to the list.
The browser will store these topics for three weeks before deleting them, causing the process to be repeated. Google ensures that these categories are selected directly on the user’s device, and do not involve the intervention of any external server.
” More importantly, topics are carefully selected to exclude sensitive categories, like gender or race. Because Topics is powered by the browser, it gives you a more recognizable way to see and control how your data is shared, compared to tracking mechanisms like third-party cookies. Additionally, by providing websites with your topics of interest, online businesses have an option that does not involve secret tracking techniques, such as browser fingerprinting, in order to continue delivering relevant advertisements. », continues the company.
A tool for Chrome to see the themes assigned to you, remove them, or even completely disable the feature is in development. If all goes well, Google could launch Topics in the third quarter of this year.
On the same subject :
Facebook and Insta abandon racial profile and political convictions in their ad targeting
Sources: google
, Engadget
, The Verge
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