This site tells you if Google is following you using its new advertising tool

New web-based tool lets people know if their internet activity is intrusive by the controversial new FLoC ad tracking system developed by Google.

Last March, Google announced a tool called “Federated Learning of Cohorts”, which is known as “Flock” and came as an alternative to third-party cookies in the “Chrome” browser (Chrome). Read also Including hiding your browsing sites .. 6 features you did not know about Google Chrome After it was the ideal work environment … Google is accused of spying on its employees The trick behind free Google Maps: why would prefer you replace it? ”Watch your step”… a new Google alert feature that warns you against using a smartphone while walking

Websites use cookies to track your activity as you move from page to page, record browsing history, shopping habits, etc.

Google has said it will gradually stop – by 2022 – using the technology, which is used to target internet advertisements, as part of its promise to improve user privacy.

But he said he would introduce Flock technology – a less prevalent cookie system and invasive user privacy – to improve user anonymity while continuing to collect their data for targeted advertising.

Critics of the new browser technology – which is tried by 0.5% of Chrome users in countries like Australia, Canada and the United States – say it still prioritizes profits from the business on people’s privacy.

One such critic is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group known as EFF, which has created a website that lets people know if they’ve been followed by the new Google tool, Flock.

Visitors to Am I Floced simply need to click on the “FLoC ID” button to see if the technology is secretly following them. Publicity

The tool is designed to increase awareness of web privacy and help create a “better Internet for everyone,” according to the EFF Foundation.

The group says – on its website – that the new tool is part of “efforts to highlight the poor and growing practices of the tech industry in the area of ​​ad targeting, including Google.”

Flock is currently being tested in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines and the United States.

The experiment is expected to continue until July 2021 and could potentially affect up to 5% of the 2.6 billion Chrome users worldwide.

According to EFF, if you are located in these countries, you can opt out of Flock experiences by disabling third-party cookies.

To do this, go to Chrome settings, then privacy and security, then cookies and other site data, and choose to see all cookies and site data and delete all.

Google’s blocking of third-party cookies is the latest in a series of restrictions the company has placed on the collection and use of data in its services.

Changes to Chrome will affect ad technology companies that use cookies to collect viewing history from people; In order to send them more relevant advertisements.

“We don’t think tracking people on the web will stand the test of time as privacy concerns continue to escalate,” Google’s Jerry Dechler said last month.

But smaller competitors are rejecting the privacy justifications that big companies like Google and Apple are using to restrict tracking because they will continue to collect valuable data and potentially earn more ad revenue.

“The issue of privacy has been raised to justify business decisions that empower their business and hurt the entire market,” said Chad Engelgau, CEO of Acxiom’s Ad Data Unit.

The French competition authority has temporarily allowed Apple to enforce the new tracking limits, saying privacy takes precedence over competition concerns.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is expected to decide soon to ban upcoming changes to Chrome.