Google Got Rid of FloC and Replaced it with Topics

If you’re a tech enthusiast, marketing agent, or just really into internet privacy, you’ll be interested to know that Google’s getting rid of the FLoC.

But, what is FloC? 

Federated Learning Cohorts was Google’s controversial project to replace interest-based advertising cookies with grouping users based on interests. Think of it like sheep herding.

Instead, Google now introduced Topics, an alternative that focuses more on topics of interest than the users themselves.

A Topic of Interest

Through studying how you move on the net, info is gathered and categorized on 300 topics selected by Google (with more to come) without keeping data on controversial or sensitive issues like race or gender.

This data is then shared with partnered Advertising Agencies to increase the accuracy of targeted advertising.

Let’s say, for example, that over the past three weeks, you’ve been visiting several sites related to Video Games, the browser will mark “Video Games” as a topic of interest, and that will decide what types of ads you see.

It’s all about you.

Though it might sound like an oxymoron, Topics is a marketing initiative with a keen interest in privacy and control. Unlike third-party cookies for interest-based research, which tend to focus on (and share) more personal information.

Users can review the topics on their list and remove them at their leisure, and they can even turn off the entire Topics API.

Privacy and control are sensitive topics in the virtual world, but marketing is all about bringing people closer to products and services they might need.

The best of both worlds

Though Topics still requires some testing, it has the potential to bridge the gap between these two topics by supplying marketing agencies with information that better serves you without invading your privacy.

This should make next year’s holiday shopping a breeze.