Is Chrome FloC'ing with you?

[nukecad]

You may (or may not) already be aware that if you use Chrome above version 89 then you may have been recruited without your knowledge in a trial by Google of a replacement for 3rd party cookies.

This shouldn't happen if you are in Europe because of GDPR, but who knows with Google, and if you use a VPN that says you are outside Europe then Google may see you as fair game.

It's only Google Chrome that's affected for now, but Google's eventual idea is to implement it for all Chromium based browsers.

It's called FLoC and is a new way of 'fingerprinting' you and putting you in a group of users with similar browsing habits so that your browsing habits can then be used by Google and/or sold on to advertisers.

There is now a quick one-click check that can tell you if you have been recruited without knowing it, along with more information about what FLoC is , and how to opt out:
https://amifloced.org/

As I understand it, FLoC currently works by collecting your Chrome browsing history once a week.
Using CCleaner to clear Chrome's 'Internet History' daily would seem an obvious way of ensuring there is nothing, or very little, to be collected.
(That won't work if your browser is Synced though).
If you have CCleaner Pro you can set Smart Cleaning to clean Chrome as you close it.
Of course some users will want to keep their history so can't use that option.

[nukecad]

Quote

WordPress announced today that they plan on treating Google's new FLoC tracking technology as a security concern and plans to block it by default on WordPress sites.

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

Vivaldi, Brave, and DuckDuckGo have also already said they are rejecting FLoC:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/vivaldi-brave-duckduckgo-reject-googles-floc-ad-tracking-tech/

[nukecad]

And now Edge Chromium is also rejecting/disabling Google's FLoC (for now at least).

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-disables-googles-floc-tracking-in-microsoft-edge-for-now/

[Andavari]

The newest version of SRWare Iron Portable had a Floc folder located inside the Profile folder (...\Profile\Floc), and it contained data. I didn't find anything on their forum to find out if it's enabled or disabled, so I'll just assume it's enabled because it was there.

[nukecad]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/github-blocks-google-floc-tracking/

[Andavari]

With all the other companies against it, now there only needs to be some courtroom proceedings to kill it.