Chrome Beta adds user controls for ad personalization to Privacy Sandbox

Since Google’s Privacy Sandbox considered launching the Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC for short, it quickly failed to persuade anyone that it would be an effective replacement for third-party cookies, so the idea was quickly abandoned. Now, it’s working on something called Topics which will serve ads based on local device data instead of pooling you with other users based on other variables.

Google’s aim with the Privacy Sandbox is to improve web privacy for people around the world, while also giving publishers, creators, and other developers the tools they need to build thriving businesses.

The Keyword

Today, the company announced that it will begin trials for something called FLEDGE – or the on-device auctions by the browser, to choose relevant ads from websites the user has previously visited. FLEDGE works hand-in-hand with Topics, and will actively cycle these chosen data sources periodically to keep an accurate picture of the user’s browsing behavior without being too invasive.

These origin trials will begin on Chrome Beta for a limited number of users and can be toggled in the Privacy Sandbox as seen above. It will roll out to more users once Google is “confident the APIs are working as designed”, giving it more wide-scale industry adoption. In the meantime, it will continue to collect feedback and course-correct until it works well for all parties. If you receive this update, you’ll be able to toggle Trials and customize the browser-based ad personalization, ad measurement, and spam & fraud reduction settings.

With Privacy Sandbox trials, sites can deliver the same browsing experience using less of your info. That means more privacy for you and less cross-site tracking. We’ll add new trials as they’re ready to test.

The Keyword

On the browser-based ad personalization screen, you’ll be able to see which interests Google Chrome has decided for you based on the sites you’ve visited, and you’ll have full control to remove them with a single click to make sure everything is as you prefer it.