Google FLoC: the new Google cookies

Well, I say expectant not to say very worried.

Now that Google's tests are already a reality, it seems that there will be no turning back and that the company's browser -the mostly used Chrome- will definitely stop including the famous "cookies" so basic in web analytics and digital advertising.

Let's do a quick reminder of what cookies are. They are small pieces of code that are installed on our computer, thanks to which certain personal information is recorded.

This is really convenient for the user, since it means that he does not have, for example, to remember so many passwords. However, it is important for the advertiser, who has a record of the interaction of visitors to their websites in a personalized way. They know who, when, how many times and how they access their content.

Obviously, in terms of privacy it is not the best, but they are basic to sustain the advertising model as we know it.

Google had been warning about this change for some time and, from April 2021, it has started with some tests that will lead to a massive deployment of its alternative to cookies with Google FLoC.

Actually it was no secret, you can even say that the pandemic has postponed something that was inevitable and a really transcendental change for eCommerce .

By losing third-party cookies, we are no longer tracking the user. This means that we no longer know how many unique visitors we have, or that remarketing can no longer be applied efficiently. 

Not to get apocalyptic, but it is certainly going to be a problem for measuring our KPIs at SEO and SEM level.

With these changes we were talking about, we do not mean that measurement will be stopped altogether. Google has come up with an intermediate solution that it has dubbed FLoC (Federating Learning of Cohorts) and that does not convince anyone.

In order to maintain greater user privacy, Chrome will stop recording cookies (although it will maintain support until 2022). Instead, it will use a different type of tokens that will analyze the user's interests and segment them into what in web analytics is called cohorts. Basically, these are groups of individuals who share a certain characteristic in common.

In a way, we can say that it is a concept that is directly related to the famous Big Data. The browser knows what you are interested in, but not exactly who you are. We go from your registration as an individual to the registration of the corresponding cohort ID.

Does FLoC really work? According to Google, its machine learning-based system is really accurate. Their data says that it is able to target campaigns correctly with 95% effectiveness. It is also true that this is just a headline, because they do not provide any report to back it up in any way.

Having explained what it is and how it affects, it is worth taking a look at the rest of the actors involved, because no one is very happy with this change.

Curiously, if we start with the user, who is the first interested party, the truth is that all this is quite transparent to him. For many years, we have lived with cookies. They have been nothing more than a notice or an annoying pop-up that was simply closed.

Only for a few people privacy was important and they blocked or deleted them regularly. For the average user, it is a change that will only mean accepting that their data will be recorded in FLoC instead of cookies. Many will not be very aware of what is happening.

For advertisers and media, however, it is another matter entirely. There is data that, at the beginning, will be distorted. Materially, it will be impossible to know the number of unique users of a website; if each one is re-counted as new, we will be tripling or quadrupling the data (which can become a fraud).

In addition, whatever they say, it seems that the attribution models for conversion will have to be reviewed.

Although we could go on raising doubts, there is another quite sensitive one that we do not want to leave out. What about the most sensitive segmentation groups? Are Google's algorithms really going to treat sexual orientation, race or any other sensitive data with the privacy that is required?

In reality, the feeling we are left with is that Google is taking a step closer to a monopoly on information. FLoC is nothing more than a proprietary cookie that collects data in an opaque manner rather than a market standard open to all.

Precisely because of this, we see how the rest of the browsers are not willing to support Chrome in this regard. It is true that they have a dominant position in the market, but if we calmly look at the market share, other alternatives such as Safari, Firefox, Opera or Edge add up to almost a third.

Even WordPress has even said that it will consider it as a security threat, disabling it by default.

There are months of uncertainty ahead, so what we recommend is to be very attentive to the changes that are coming, to be informed as much as possible and to understand what is happening. On our blog we keep you updated promptly with everything that happens.