undefined | Better HN

0 pointsdialtone5y ago0 comments

No, you can't really do any of that. A single FLoC ID, while having access to no other identifier, is not gonna say anything about your past history to anyone. It's just useful to correlate to actual advertising campaign performance.

Most traditional adtech, used to targeting attributes, is quite puzzled at how to use this at the moment given they'll all need to invest in machine learning because these IDs aren't interpretable.

The specifications of this stuff are all in the open.

0 comments

3 comments · 1 top-level

Lorkki5y ago· 2 in thread

> A single FLoC ID, while having access to no other identifier

That's the key though, isn't it? While I can see that the intentions may be good, this isn't being released into a vacuum, but rather to a world where all of that other tracking infrastructure already exists.

dialtoneOP5y ago

Only during the transition, when all is said and done there are no other identifiers of merit, and since this one can change pretty frequently it doesn't really identify much.

One day I receive a request that says you are group 12345, in 1 hour you are 12346 instead because the algorithm recalculated your FLoC... Not sure what anyone can tell about that without knowing the group ids meanings, which likely not even google will know since this is going to be a clustering algorithm anyway.

leereeves5y ago

> Only during the transition, when all is said and done there are no other identifiers of merit, and since this one can change pretty frequently it doesn't really identify much.

As long as browser fingerprinting exists it will be possible to track the FLoC cohorts a person belongs to over time and learn much more about them than a single FLoC cohort reveals.

But AFAIK, FLoC is only replacing third-party cookies; browser fingerprinting will still be possible.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse