It is now known that Google monitors everything on the Internet.
The 2020 the Google announced the beginning of the end of cookies third parties that track you as you click in the Chrome browser or whatever usesth.
Η company but it has begun to release the cookie replacement, a monitoring mechanism called "Federated Learning of Cohorts" or simply FLoC.
Cookies remember information with your login details or the content you viewed in an online store. Advertisers use this information to better understand your behavior on Internet ακόμη κι αν είστε offline και στη συνέχεια να σας σερβίρουν συγκεκριμένες, στοχευμένες advertisements following you on the Internet.
Google has said it wants to make Internet browsing less intrusive, but on the other hand it wants to keep making money from the Internet.
This led to a shift from cookies to the FLoC system. This technology groups users with similar interests based on browsing history. An ID assigned to your group follows on the Internet. Google offers "interest-based advertising" to advertisers.
Google considers technology an "alternative to privacy" instead of cookies, as your browser history is not transmitted directly to advertisers, only your ID. Thousands of users could be part of such a group.
A whitepaper Google's for FLoCs sums up the privacy benefits (according to Google), letting users “hide in the crowd”. With base your browsing history, you could be in a group made up of dog owners who visited multiple websites rather than being singled out as individual dog owners who went to a pet shop for example.
By watching Chrome FLoC, you will join a group that likes or has dogs instead of joining a group of other people who have visited the same sites but who have or like cats. Each user can participate in many groups based on their interests. And because many Chrome users are logged in to their Google Accounts, their IDs follow (and are further configured).
The Electronic Frontier Foundation does not support this new form of online tracking that replicates your online history to more accurately group and gather more information in one ID (this is known as fingerprinting).
The EFF is also concerned that testing for the new monitoring method has begun without the user's consent or knowledge and without any clear exception.
In response to this new type of monitoring, the EFF created a website to check if the Chrome you are using generates an ID to join you in a group.
At present (according to Google) the tests are performed on a small group of users. However, the EFF reminds you to keep checking, as each week you could be added to the company teams as the tests expand.