Google will not make FLoC-based cohorts available for testing in countries where GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive are in effect.
In other words, no FLoCs in Europe. At least for now.
During a meeting of the Improving Web Advertising Business Group (IWABG) at the World Wide Web Consortium on Tuesday, Michael Kleber, a Google engineer, acknowledged that FLoCs might not be compatible with European privacy law.
“For countries in Europe, we will not be turning on origin trials [of FLoC] for users in EEA [European Economic Area] countries,” Kleber said.
Specifically, Google will not proceed with FLoC testing in Europe due to concerns over which entity will serve as the data controller and which will serve as the data processor in the creation of cohorts.
Kleber seemed pretty definitive in his statement. Several hours after the meeting, however, came a follow-up tweet from Marshall Vale, a Chrome product manager, who wrote, "We are starting this FLoC origin trial for users in the US and select other countries, and we expect to make FLoC available for testing worldwide at a later date."
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