Twitter removes FLoC support in another blow to Google

Social network has removed FLoC code from its website

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Twitter has decided to remove support forGoogle’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) from its social network after only recently adding the new tracking technology to its platform.

Just last month, security researcher Jane Manchun Wong discovered thatTwitterwas collecting data for FLoC by examining the source code of its website.

Now though, it appears that the social network has removed support for FLoC from its website as the new tracking technology is facing growing criticism online.

In arecent tweet, Wong explained that “Twitter has removed the code related to collecting FLoC from users as of now”. This could change in the future especially as Google is now in the process ofrewriting FLoCsince it has decided to not extend the tracking technology’s trial further.

Opting out of FLoC

For those unfamiliar, FLoC is a tracking program which aims to replacethird-party cookiesby using machine learning algorithms to place people into groups based on their browsing habits and data from these groups is then shared with advertisers.

While this is an improvement from the way in which third-party cookies have traditionally been used to track users on an individual basis, a growing number of businesses have decided to opt out of FLoC or disable the technology all together.

So farBrave,Vivaldi,Microsoft,GitHub,WordPress,DuckDuckGo, theElectronic Frontier Foundationand others have voiced their opposition to FLoC which could be one of the reasons Google did not extend its trial period.

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However, Google isn’t done with FLoC just yet and the company plans to bring its improved tracking technology tobrowsersonce again by the end of next year.

ViaMSPoweruser

After working with the TechRadar Pro team for the last several years, Anthony is now the security and networking editor at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches and ransomware gangs to the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. When not writing, you can find him tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.

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