Google launches trial version for ‘Flock’ developers to replace existing cookies

Google’s new technology to change cookies, ‘Flock’ Developer trial version released in ChromeIt was announced on March 30 (local time). As the importance of privacy grows day by day, the controversy over third-party cookie collection continues, and Google has announced that it will no longer support third-party cookies in Chrome browsers in 2019.

Since then, ‘Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC)’ is a technology developed and proposed as an alternative to third party cookies in the Privacy Sandbox project, which Google has begun to protect user privacy.

“I felt it was irresponsible and harmful to completely block third-party cookies without a viable alternative to the ecosystem,” said Marshall Bale, product manager for privacy sandboxes at Google, who said they had begun testing the flock. Preliminary testing will be conducted for selected customers in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and the Philippines.

According to the company, a locally implemented group analyzes search history based on an algorithm for groups and groups of thousands of users (cohorts). Accordingly, Google explains that personal user information will not be disclosed directly, as only certain group information is provided to advertisers.

Advertisers can only target ads to groups with common interests. Google said in January that the impact of flak-based personalized advertising has not diminished compared to cookie-based ads. Test result It is reported to have registered a conversion rate of 95% to the dollar.

-> Cookie re-effect The installation effect is “good” … Google reveals the results of the ad protection privacy test

Meanwhile, experts point out that the herd, like cookies, can also attack privacy. On March 3, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an international non-profit organization, announced the title ‘Google’s FLoC is a Terrible Idea’. AdvertisingAlso announced.

EFF says, “Google claims that the world that uses Flock‌ is better than it is today. However, Google’s framework is based on the false premise that you have to choose between ‘Old Tracking’ and ‘New Tracking’. Not both.” We should not redesign our tracking system, we should imagine a better world without targeted advertising. “ciokr@idg.co.kr