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by jedwhite 1893 days ago
I'd recommend blocking FLoC on any websites you run. It is simple to do. Add this header to block FLoC:

`permissions-policy: interest-cohort=()`

See also this post on StackOverflow for information on how it adds a warning message in Chrome DevTools for browsers that aren't part of the current test [1]

[1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66997942/error-with-perm...

Edit for typo.
1 comments
Grumbledour 1893 days ago
Why should I bother though?

Privacy is really important to me, so I am not affected because I don't use chrome in the first place. All the people who use chrome, especially on this site, know damn well what they agreed to. You all already opted into this and everything google comes up with tomorrow. Why should I put in work to give you the warm fuzzy feeling of having staved of the google spying for another day? If you want protection from this, use another browser.

At this point, blocking this from the website level just seems to support google even more, because it takes the pressure from chrome users to actually start thinking and stop being victims.

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jedwhite 1893 days ago
If you run any websites, you should do this because, although YOU might not use Chrome yourself, your website visitors often do.

When websites block FLoC, the activity of their users on those websites are not available to Google's Cohort Assignment Algorithm.

It's not about your personal privacy as the individual website operator. It's about your customers' privacy as visitors to your website.

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Grumbledour 1893 days ago
But THEY decided to use Chrome! So the WANTED this to happen.

Now, you can rightly point out that they don't know, but we are on Hacker News here. I am not talking about someones grandparents, I am talking about users of this site, working in the IT industry. I am talking about my collegues at work. About IT professionals. We all should know, most of us do. Yet, many here always proclaim how they can't use privacy friendly alternatives because "minor reason". The whole industry regularly creates content that only properly works in chrome, reminding one of the old Internet Explorer days.

It's not that "normal" people don't listen to "us" experts and use chrome regardless, it's that many so called professionals seem to care about privacy even less. And I am not getting complicit with this attitude in helping google make everyone feel save using their crap piece of spyware.

Switch your browser now and tell the people who don't know why they should too, or stop complaining about "evil google" while enabling them with building shit that includes their tracking and only works in their browser.

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