Disable or Remove FLoC features and the provider service

[නොදන්නා]

Disable or remove entire FLoc,
- FLoC component
- Any other FLoC functionalities shipped in Chromium
   - FLoC client-side determinations of cohorts
   - Any reporting of FLoC cohort determinations to Google (or otherwise) servers (i.e., the reporting used for k-anonymity cohort protections)
   - FLoC JS methods (i.e. document.interestCohort)

Brave, Vivaldi, Bromite have addressed FLoC issue and edge browser has disabled it
Resources: https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/8468
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+question/696632

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

The test plan in the linked resource (https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/8468) is:

1. Open chrome://components and make sure that there is no Federated Learning of Cohorts component.

2. Open the devtools (F12) console, type document.interestCohort() and confirm that you get an error:

  VM119:1 Uncaught TypeError: document.interestCohort is not a function at <anonymous>:1:10

The Chromium snap passes both tests.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

That's right. But I wonder whether this is enough to guarantee that FLoC is fully disabled?

In my profile directory, there's a folder named "Floc". Files under that directory were last modified 2021-10-27 though, so it might be that this was created by an older version of chromium and isn't used any longer.

I'm not seeing any reference to FLoC in the Preferences file.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

'find "$HOME"/snap/chromium -iname *floc*' gives me nothing either, but I only installed it a couple of weeks ago.

Some things I observe:

1. In my set-up, Floc can _not_ be enabled in <chrome://settings/privacySandbox>.

2. Look into the parts concerning Floc in the source code, one finds several stub functions, e.g. in chrome/browser/privacy_sandbox/privacy_sandbox_service.cc:393

  void PrivacySandboxService::SetFlocPrefEnabled(bool enabled) const {
    // TODO(crbug.com/1299720): Remove this and all the UI code which uses it.
    return;
  }

3. In that page <crbug.com/1299720>,

> FLoC-the-feature has been removed from the codebase, but there are still a few UX surfaces that need to surface FLoC information (basically informing users that it's disabled).
>
> To support this, while also transitioning to Privacy Sandbox Settings 3, many functions have been left with stubs with little or no functionality.
>
> Once Privacy Sandbox Settings 3 has been launched, these surfaces are no longer required, and the remaining functions can be cleaned up.

And then the title of commit https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/3c4b23ea94bf0efbc12d93e832b5888c50412b6b is

> Privacy Sandbox Settings: Move FLoC to Topics API

This suggests Google is moving away from Floc.

4. Indeed, from <https://developer.chrome.com/docs/privacy-sandbox/topics/#how-does-the-topics-api-address-concerns-with-floc>,

> The origin trial of FLoC in 2021 received a wide range of feedback from adtech and web ecosystem contributors. In particular, there were concerns that FLoC cohorts could be used as a fingerprinting surface to identify users, or could reveal a user's association with a sensitive category. There were also calls to make FLoC more transparent and understandable to users.
>
> The Topics API has been designed with this feedback in mind, to explore other ways to support interest-based advertising, with improved transparency, stronger privacy assurances and a different approach for sensitive categories.

All in all, apparently Floc is being phased out we have a moving target. So, if that is a correct assessment, although this bug report will technically solve itself with time (insofar as it is targeted at Floc), we will still keep an eye for future tracking mechanisms inside Chromium, under whatever name they may come to be.

[නොදන්නා (aunknown)]

>So, if that is a correct assessment, although this bug report will technically solve itself with time (insofar as it is targeted at Floc)

If this closed, someone will open another report in the future

>All in all, apparently Floc is being phased out we have a moving target. we will still keep an eye for future tracking mechanisms inside Chromium, under whatever name they may come to be.

It's perfect decision to keep an eye on them and **Try** to keep the chromium browser free from tracking mechanisms & data collection possibilities. Some browsers come with privacy model at first but later change to business models or add third-party services, additional features, closed-source parts, domains connectivities etc or delay release updates.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

Closing as Floc has been removed and didn't come back.