Brave blocks Google's latest FloC ad-tracking technology

In a new blog post, privacy-focused browser Brave said it would block Google’s latest ad-tracking technology FloC because “it materially harms user privacy, under the guise of being privacy-friendly.”

FloC is a new browsing standard that Google believes will enable “interest-based advertising on the web” without letting advertisers know users’ identity.” Instead, it will collect data based on the behavior of groups called cohorts, making it easier for the advertisers to show relevant ads without identifying an individual personally. According to Google, the new ad-tracking technology will bring more privacy in its data collection methods for its advertisement space.

“The worst aspect of FLoC is that it materially harms user privacy, under the guise of being privacy-friendly. Others have already detailed many of the ways FLoC is privacy harming. We note here just three aspects of FLoC that are particularly harmful and concerning,” Brave CEO and co-founder Brendon Eich and senior privacy researcher Peter Snyder wrote in a blog post.

The three aspects of FloC that Brave believes are harmful:

1. FLoC Tells Sites About Your Browsing History
2. FLoC Makes it Easier For Sites To Track You Across The Web
3. FLoC Promotes A False Notion of What Privacy Is, and Why Privacy Is Important

Apart from Brave, DuckDuckGo has also spoken out against Google’s new ad-tracking technology saying that FloC is “bad for privacy.”

What are our readers think about Google’s latest ad-tracking technology? Sound off in the comments below.