Everyone knows what cookies are. Those annoying little bits of code that follow you everywhere on the internet. Nearly every website has them and they use them to determine your browsing and shopping habits so they can put the most tantalizing ads in front of you. They also sell all that sweet, sweet data to others so they can tailor their own marketing. If it bothers you that all of these different companies are tracking you so closely, you aren’t alone.
Don’t worry though! Google ‘may’ have found a ‘privacy friendly’ substitute for cookies. You’ll pardon us if we don’t break out the party hats and spinners just yet. First, what do they mean by ‘may’? Did they or did they not? If you don’t know, kindly come back to me when you do. Second, what would this substitute be exactly? And what does ‘privacy friendly’ mean? After all, if you are being tracked, you’re being tracked – period. If the trackers don’t directly know your name or address it hardly matters. They still know where to find you online, which is the main point anyway. But, let’s delve into this a bit.
Now Google, Apple, and Mozilla all say they are phasing out tracking software. If that’s true, then it would be surprising. After all, cookies have been a vital part of the internet’s marketing ecosystem, a system collectively worth around $330 billion. I wouldn’t be expecting these companies to leave all that money on the table. If you think about it, all of these companies have tracking and invading people’s privacy as a fundamental part of their business model.
So, what is their claim? How will these companies be protecting your privacy while still raking in plenty of cash? They are calling it ‘Federated Learning of Cohorts’ (FLOC). What is this FLOC? It’s an Application Programming Interface (API) that replaces cookies and would exist as a browser extension. It’s unclear how different in practice this will actually be from cookies. The primary difference, for now, looks to be that it will put the choice of whether or not they are used in the hands of the user. Which is actually good. At least you can more readily consent to being tracked by everyone you go.
Naturally, not everyone is happy with this development. Facebook in particular has voiced displeasure with Apple’s transition to FLOC and other privacy changes in the App Store. Yet, do they really have much to be concerned about? Google for example has said they are taking an ‘industry first’ approach and not transitioning away from cookies in the immediate future. Note that bit about ‘industry first’. This approach allows time for Facebook, Twitter, and everyone else to find ways to adapt to the situation. Eventually, they will move away from cookies altogether but not before ways can be found to keep that $330 billion train rolling. They’ll keep the cash and claim victory for privacy rights. Or to borrow a phrase, they’ll have their cake and eat it too.
Another clue that this is really what is going is the word ‘may’ that was used at the beginning. They aren’t definitely going with FLOC and they are trying out different approaches. Whatever they land on will likely be sold as a ‘balance between the interest of individuals and the industry as a whole’. Which is just a fancy way of saying not much is really changing.
Instead of an ‘industry first’ mentality, might we at TARTLE suggest another approach? How about trying a ‘people first’ approach. Start with the idea that these people own their own data and if you want it, they have to choose to give it to you. In fact, maybe you’ll have to pay them for it and share some of that $330 billion. That’s treating data, and the people behind it like they are worth something like they are sovereign individuals. And that is a little revolution.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
Those annoying little bits of code that follow you everywhere on the internet. Nearly every website has them and they use them to determine your browsing and shopping habits so they can put the most tantalizing ads in front of you. They also sell all that sweet, sweet data to others so they can tailor their own marketing. If it bothers you that all of these different companies are tracking you so closely, you aren’t alone.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Tartle Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanities steps into the future and source data defines the path.
Alexander McCaig (00:25):
Good morning, everyone waking up over here with Tartle Cast on a beautiful snowy morning in New Mexico. Thanks to the squall last night.
Jason Rigby (00:32):
Yes. It was pretty crazy.
Alexander McCaig (00:35):
Your local traffic and weather this morning.
Jason Rigby (00:38):
No, I woke up and it was like... I like sunlight to wake me up and it was really bright this morning. So I was like, "Oh, we must've had some snow".
Alexander McCaig (00:49):
Yeah. Then I got some streetlight reflecting off of it. That's the only good [inaudible 00:00:54] we have going on that wakes us up.
Jason Rigby (00:56):
That's funny. I want to get into something that's pretty heavy duty right off in the morning time.
Alexander McCaig (01:02):
Let's go for it.
Jason Rigby (01:02):
Let's eat the frog. You're supposed to do that hardest thing first.
Alexander McCaig (01:04):
Wait, hold on. Was it El albedo? Is that the word for light reflection? Guys, now that we got a new studio, we get a laptop here so I just want to make sure. Yep. Solar radiation reflection. Albedo. All right, [crosstalk 00:01:21] let's keep going. We're doing well.
Jason Rigby (01:21):
You're using big words there. Google says it may have found a privacy friendly... Dude, don't laugh. Just because you used the word [crosstalk 00:01:32] privacy.
Alexander McCaig (01:31):
Ii don't even want you to finish the sentence because it says Google says it may have. The dude is saying that it may have done something. Did you? Or did you not?
Jason Rigby (01:44):
Google says it may have found a privacy friendly substitute to cookies.
Alexander McCaig (01:48):
And what is that, sugar cookies?
Jason Rigby (01:53):
That when we take all your data, we're going to give you, we're going to give you some cookies too.
Alexander McCaig (01:59):
In and of itself, there's nothing privacy focused about a cookie. It's specifically designed to track.
Jason Rigby (02:06):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (02:06):
Track information across sites.
Jason Rigby (02:09):
But this is interesting. It says Google and well browser rivals Apple, Mozilla have all introduced sweeping privacy changes. I know iOS, I think it's 18 coming up or whatever, everybody's facebooking. Everybody's upset about that because of the ad. I'm going to do a whole show on that once it becomes clear. We'll do a whole show on that, but they are collectively phasing out cookies and internet tracking tools that track user's web browsing history. Cookies are considered third-party data. Just so people know. Or user data that's collected in directly from users via browsers or website. Third data is often bought and sold at scale via online data exchanges. For decades, cookies have been the primary way most advertisers target users online, but privacy concerns are making it less viable going forward. This is crazy. How much do you think the ad ecosystem is for cookies? How much money do you think that's worth?
Alexander McCaig (03:01):
That's got to be like 10 plus billion, right? That's got to be huge.
Jason Rigby (03:06):
330 billion.
Alexander McCaig (03:07):
It's massive.
Jason Rigby (03:08):
That's crazy.
Alexander McCaig (03:09):
There's a big business in tracking people.
Jason Rigby (03:13):
That's a lot of money, guys. They're trying to find something. It's like, okay, everybody's cracking down.
Alexander McCaig (03:20):
I mean the privacy focus. Why do you have to be unreasonable? Just fricking give people their privacy. Why is that so hard? Why is it so hard? You want to know why it's so hard for them, because the entire foundation of their business is on tracking people and taking away their privacy. That's what it is. I make money because a cookie tells me all about someone and they're not really sure what's going on. You know when you consent to a cookie online. Why would you call it a cookie? It's like the most...
Jason Rigby (03:49):
Whenever that works [crosstalk 00:03:50].
Alexander McCaig (03:50):
It's like here's a handgun, but I'm going to call it a..., I don't know.
Jason Rigby (03:55):
Let's call it a carrot.
Alexander McCaig (03:57):
A brownie. I got a brownie. I got a brownie. Sure. I'll accept the brownie. You know what I mean?
Jason Rigby (04:02):
Exactly. Yeah. That's the truth though.
Alexander McCaig (04:05):
It's stupid.
Jason Rigby (04:07):
The company said Monday, that test of, and here's what they're calling it, Federated Learning Of Cohorts and F L O C.
Alexander McCaig (04:15):
Federated Learning Of Cohorts.
Jason Rigby (04:18):
It is a new API software interface-
Alexander McCaig (04:20):
FLOC.
Jason Rigby (04:21):
that acts as an effective replacement signal for third-party cookies. The API exists as a browser extension within Google Chrome.
Alexander McCaig (04:28):
This is how I think I see this happening.
Jason Rigby (04:32):
It says Chrome extension.
Alexander McCaig (04:33):
This is how this is going to happen. They're going to ask you if you want to use it. It's not going to be... Cookies are just everywhere on demand, regardless.
Jason Rigby (04:42):
You want to use flock.
Alexander McCaig (04:42):
They're going to be like, do you want to use FLOC? People are going to be, I don't want to use FLOC. We gave you the option.
Jason Rigby (04:48):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (04:48):
You didn't take it. You know what I mean? That's what it is.
Jason Rigby (04:51):
That's what it is.
Alexander McCaig (04:51):
When it's an API, it's puts the option back in your hands.
Jason Rigby (04:54):
It says approach to its privacy changes than Apple, which has been criticized mostly by Facebook for ruling out sweeping changes to its identifier for advertisers. IDFA and that's what we're going to talk about. Google's head of user trust and privacy for advertising, Chetna Bindra.
Alexander McCaig (05:08):
From Google. Hold on. IDFA sounds like a military group.
Jason Rigby (05:11):
I know. It is. IDFA. That's Apple. All these guys in their abbreviations. Let's side note. You know when a corporation is in trouble, when they start having tons of acronyms and abbreviations. That's when you became too corporized.
Alexander McCaig (05:31):
That's when you stopped trusting those people.
Jason Rigby (05:36):
I've seen companies, they'll have a hundred different abbreviations for a hundred different things. Then their whole systems, you go into their computer program systems or whatever software that they're using and then it's all these tabs with all these acronyms. It's like, why are you making it so complex?
Alexander McCaig (05:52):
It doesn't need to be that complex.
Jason Rigby (05:54):
Business doesn't have to be that complex.
Alexander McCaig (05:54):
I've seen engineers that are designing like missiles and torpedoes. This is nothing complex. They go in, they have a couple of things [inaudible 00:06:01]. You don't need all the acronyms.
Jason Rigby (06:03):
No, you don't need all that stuff and if you're creating all these-
Alexander McCaig (06:06):
You're creating widgets.
Jason Rigby (06:07):
It's just a waste of time and energy. Google's head of user trust and privacy for advertising, Chetna Bindra, actually sent an industry first approach made for more sense for Google. The way we see it is that there's a lot of technical innovation at the heart of this. What we've been focused on is not blocking third party cookies right away.
Alexander McCaig (06:27):
See, this is what I said. They'll put it in as an option and they said it's industry first.
Jason Rigby (06:31):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (06:32):
Where's people first?
Jason Rigby (06:34):
Exactly. Now think about that. I want everybody to stop and think about that.
Alexander McCaig (06:37):
They're just like this giant corporate leach.
Jason Rigby (06:40):
Industry first approach. We got to maintain our $330 billion ad spend.
Alexander McCaig (06:46):
We're doing this for industry and we're giving people an option, but we're going to slowly roll it out.
Jason Rigby (06:52):
We are intent on engaging the entire advertising community and really leaning into the kind of collaboration that's critical to make such massive change. What's next? Google has other proposals to replace cookies in the works so it's not guaranteed that FLOC will be the answer. Of course, they're AB testing probably a hundred different types of things, but they're on the API tracks, which seems to be everybody's doing that.
Alexander McCaig (07:16):
Nice Google.
Jason Rigby (07:17):
Yes. Thank you, Google.
Alexander McCaig (07:19):
Guys, if you're an advertiser and you want to smarten up, as you should.
Jason Rigby (07:26):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (07:26):
And you're having a hard time getting first party data. There's a really easy way to do it and attain it ethically. You heard of this place?
Jason Rigby (07:33):
No.
Alexander McCaig (07:35):
Look at that. Look at that up on the screen. Thank goodness for this giant TV in here.
Jason Rigby (07:40):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (07:41):
Tartle. Ever heard of it? It's this new thing where you get your first party data from the people that create that data. The first party. Not the second, not the third, not Google, not anybody else from you.
Jason Rigby (07:54):
Directly from the person.
Alexander McCaig (07:56):
Why don't you take the next ethical step in a people first industry and not an industry first industry. All right, cool down.
Jason Rigby (08:06):
And be a part of T-A-R-T-L-E.com. Tartle.com.
Alexander McCaig (08:11):
Change the world.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Thank you for listening to Tartle Cast with your hosts, Alexandra McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity's steps into the future and resource data defines the path. What's your data worth?
