FLoC is coming — Here’s what we know so far Google has positioned its third-party cookie replacement squarely between advertisers and users, and both sides are worried. George Nguyen on March 15, 2021 at 11:00 am More Earlier this month, Google announced that it would not build or use alternate identifiers to track users for advertising purposes. Instead, the company reiterated that its ads will be driven by one of its Privacy Sandbox initiatives, called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). Advertisers have been anticipating the shift away from third-party cookies for years, but now, we have some understanding of the technology that the industry leader will be backing to replace it. Google has positioned FLoC squarely between users, who have grown increasingly privacy-conscious, and advertisers, who view it in the shadow of the third-party cookies they’ve become accustomed to. This has generated questions and concerns from both sides, many of which are unlikely to be addressed until further testing occurs. Here’s what we know so far.