FLoC Targeted Ads by Google can now be blocked...

Non-Avast security products
1

Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), a new way for Gloogle to show targeted ads,
can now be blocked by uBlock Origin.

As published here: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/commit/98414bbad4d6fc3d8cbbeeff994f55165dedaaa3

DuckDuckGo Essentials will also soon come to block FloC.

polonus

2
DuckDuckGo Essentials will also soon come to block FloC.

Also Brave, apparently. See: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/14942

3

Google Is Testing Its Controversial New Ad Targeting Tech in Millions of Browsers. Here’s What We Know.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/google-testing-its-controversial-new-ad-targeting-tech-millions-browsers-heres
https://amifloced.org/

4

Hi Asyn,

You can already test whether you are one of the ever changing 0,5% Google end-users followed by FLoC here:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/am-i-floced-launch

Are you a victim of that kind of eneased fingerprinting?
Victims come standard from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia Raja, Japan, Mexico, New-Zealand , the Philipines,
and of course the U.S. of A. in an ever-changing test-bed.

polonus

5

No European countries in the list, probably due to GDPR… 8)

6

Vivaldi, Brave, DuckDuckGo reject Google’s FLoC ad tracking tech
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/vivaldi-brave-duckduckgo-reject-googles-floc-ad-tracking-tech/

7

WordPress to automatically disable Google FLoC on websites
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/wordpress-to-automatically-disable-google-floc-on-websites/

8

Microsoft disables Google’s FLoC tracking in Microsoft Edge, for now
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-disables-googles-floc-tracking-in-microsoft-edge-for-now/

Note: Statements from Mozilla (Firefox) and Apple (Safari) are also included in the article.

9

According to an Avast spokesperson,
The Avast Secure Browser will also be blocking FLoC

10

GitHub blocks Google FLoC tracking
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/github-blocks-google-floc-tracking/
https://github.blog/changelog/2021-04-27-github-pages-permissions-policy-interest-cohort-header-added-to-all-pages-sites/

11

One could also use a header to do so

function disable_floc($headers) { $headers['Permissions-Policy'] = 'interest-cohort=()'; return $headers; }

add_filter(‘wp_headers’, ‘disable_floc’);

polonus

12

Advertisers now joining the Google FLoC bandwaggon.
Read: https://digiday.com/marketing/as-ad-tech-firms-test-ways-to-connect-googles-floc-to-other-data-privacy-watchers-see-fears-coming-true/

End-users way out from this means installing the uBlock Origin adblocker extension in their browser of choice.
Microsoft disables Google’s FLoC-tracking in Microsoft Edge:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-disables-googles-floc-tracking-in-microsoft-edge-for-now/.

But MS is working on a variant of their own, so taking us from bad to worse.
When we reached out to Microsoft to confirm if FLoC was intentionally disabled,
we were not given a clear answer.
Microsoft instead pivoted to their favoring of a Microsoft-led proposal called PARAKEET.

How Big Tech’s Autocracy is coming to America, enabling bad behavior towards end-users.

[b]uBlock Origin is blocking FLoC.
See release notes for 1.35.0:
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/tag/1.35.0.[/b]

Does our bob3160 know more about Microsofts’ PARAKEET plans for the future?

polonus

13

Now also covered by Privacy Badger: https://github.com/EFForg/privacybadger/blob/master/doc/Changelog

14

Is Google’s FLoC a solution to user privacy concerns?
https://blog.avast.com/google-floc-avast