Google have recently taken the next step into tracking users with the FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts). I have provided links with details what this exactly is but basically the purpose it put everyone in groups and then target them as they see fit.

This tech is in Google Chrome, chromium browsers which GOG Galaxy and Steam uses for their clients. There are a few chromium-based browsers that has disable this by default. Browsers like Firefox are unaffected though.

Website owners can already block this by adding this to the HTTP headers:
Permissions-Policy: interest-cohort=()

Links:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/google-testing-its-controversial-new-ad-targeting-tech-millions-browsers-heres
https://spreadprivacy.com/block-floc-with-duckduckgo/

fyi adding http code to your header does fuck all to block Google tracking and I don't see how this has anything to do with Gog?

If you don't care about blocking trackers that's not really relevant, they should also stop using services from Google. It has something to do with GOG because they run a store and have a lot of users that use chrome or chormium browsers and they use chromium in GOG Galaxy. FLoC will be replacing cookies in the future because a lot of browsers block third-party cookies by default these days and this is Google's way around that.

I think what ussnorway is trying to say is that an HTTP header can hardly block what a browser is doing. It may work now, but it's something that can be circumvented if it gets too problematic for Google. The answer is what it's always been: don't use their track-enabled software, get something that doesn't treat you as a prime candidate for targeted adds.

Agreed - isn't the answer here to, if you care about this, use a non-chromium based browser and don't use GoG Galaxy?

This might not be the place to start this discussion, as pretty much everyone is already of the mind that cookies and targeted ads are evil, but I thought it might spark up some discussion :)

Ask yourself this - have you ever enjoyed free creative written content on the internet? Some enjoyably well-written articles perhaps about gaming, news, hobbies, etc.?

Have you then thought about how that content gets made and at what cost?

How much does it 'cost' you to allow cookies and get hobby related ads at a sidebar next to the article?

How much benefit is it for the content creator in revenue for you to tick a box to enable cookies? Perhaps enough to keep the site going, cover the costs at the very least?

Just something to ponder about. And by the way, FloC is in no way a done deal and 3rd party cookies have been dead for a while now on Safari, Firefox ofc, and now all of iOS devices. Yet digital advertising is still in business, and companies invest in marketing for their products and services. How do you think that's possible without 3rd party cookies?

Just something to ponder about.

My view is that regardless of whether I allow or disallow targeted adverts, there will be adverts anyway. (If I use an ad-blocker, at some point, the companies will find a way to stop you from doing this). Targeted adverts make more money for the company - so in theory, less adverts will be required. Therefore, especially given I never click through on an ad anyway, I don't have much of a problem with targeted adverts.

Plus, what is a company going to learn from knowing that I read the news online, buy stuff form GoG and Amazon and watch cat videos on youtube? Yes, they could try to reverse engineer political leanings and other things from that, but I don't live in China and they'll probably get it wrong anyway.

The moment you plug that cable into your machine, everybody worldwide is tracking, scanning, scrapping anything and everything, in fact you don’t even need cables, it’s all via WiFi as well. From the OS, everything you install, any transmitted data across each server/connection, through ISPs etc. It is complete and omnipresent. Your gas supply meter is probably a google ad not right now, what about that smart fridge, probably surveillance for xyz country, and not mention Alexa or one of those monitoring everything you do. Blocking a cookie is really the proverbial wee in the ocean.

I get what you're saying but base advertising and in-depth profiling (bordering on turning previously platform neutral web browsers into glorified "Google Services Web Surveillance Client") aren't the same thing. People understand the need for the former to avoid a subscription. But the "need" for the latter benefits Google far more than it does website owners. Same goes with Google "shaping" search results based on prior searches, eg, if you were researching a "hot topic" that was highly political, Google are far more likely to give you biased results by placing you in a "group" based on on your initial search for that and then feed you only links and adverts consisting of telling you what they think you want to hear based on your "group", vs if you were using say Duckduckgo that better allows you to research both sides of a "difficult" topic without the bias.

Advertising may be the life-blood of the web sure, but Google, Facebook, etc, (all advertising companies) "surveillance needs" are regularly inflated well above and beyond what's needed to keep websites alive via a functional advertising infrastructure. That's why they're worth over $1tn in valuations whilst some of those creative sites you mentioned still struggle. This stuff won't bring in more money to website owners, it will bring in more money to Google from website owners, since it just means Google can charge website owners more money for the same adverts whether the "targeting" actually works or not... (and you only have to look at the utterly bizarre stuff that gets "recommended for you" in Youtube (and the adverts inside them) to see that Google's "targeted advertising" algorithms are random as hell even with full knowledge of your prior viewing history stored on their own servers).

The only sane thing to do is not use Google "products". Even if you like Chromium based browsers vs Firefox, there are other options (Ungoogled-Chromium or Vivaldi):-

https://vivaldi.com/blog/no-google-vivaldi-users-will-not-get-floced/

As for "you should be grateful to Google because sites need adverts", up to a point yes. But advertising companies never know when to stop (from the old animated banners with sounds, to malvertising scripts & clickjacking (fake UI elements that do something other than what they describe), fake OS error warning messages, status bar hover on link address spoofing, chained URL redirects, etc, to modern "Big Data" where "enough" profiled data will never be enough for them), and they regularly engage in self-destructive behaviour. Eg, they complain 3rd party cookie tracking "no longer works because browsers now disable that by default", well yes they do and that's because the whole cookie thing has been so wildly abused by the advertising companies that they've hardly ever been used for their intended purpose, so who "broke" them in the first place really?...

Are there any real alternatives nowadays, besides Firefox (and the Tor browser)? Didn't also Edge switch to chromium engine already?

Yeah, I am using Firefox, and even the Tor browser, when I care about my privacy (I've set Firefox to delete all cookies, offline data, history etc. whenever I exit the browser).

In Youtube and also GOG I use Chrome/Chromium, for convenience reasons. I even admit I kinda like it that Youtube offers me videos that I am more likely to like, albeit that is probably more based on whether I am logged into Youtube or not.

If I go to Youtube with Firefox without logging into Youtube, I get mainly some silly trending Finnish videos, LOL. Thanks but no thanks, I want my daily dose of Louder with Crowder, Think Before You Sleep, JayzTech (gaming laptop reviews etc.) and different meme compilations to brighten my day.

Toss a cookie to your Google
Don't let the FLoC starving :)

Have you also tinkered with about:config?

Just saying, I've discovered a lot of great channels on Youtube through their recommendations. Some is pure dross, but some is really good. I'm not sure how I feel about targeted ads right now.

Brave, while it s a chromium-based browser, does not collect data on you.