Anyone who has moved a bit on the internet, and also those who have not, knows that the most important thing for companies like Google and Facebook is to know our habits. For this reason, among others, there are cookies. For some time now, these "cookies" have been a nuisance, so Google came up with the idea of designing FLoC. EFF said this was even worse than cookies in terms of privacy, and browsers like Brave and Vivaldi have it disabled by default. The search engine company has had a light bulb turned on again, and Topics It is the new idea that they have had.
It is not necessary to know English to understand a little about what is going on or what is meant by the name Topics. If you are a user of the social network Twitter, we know that «TT» or Trending Topic is a topic that is being talked about a lot, the topic of the moment. In fact, Google Translate DeepL directly translates it like this, as ThemesBut, what will this new way of spying on us do to find out about our interests?
Topics sounds even worse than FLoC
There is a video on YouTube advertising Topics as if it were a new Google service, but no. Regarding its operation, once activated, it will be our browser that collects and adds our tastes and/or habits to categories, such as if we are interested in games, music, books, etc., and you will “know” us by our browsing history.
When an advertising company asks for it, it will be the same browser the one that will give you up to three Topics (topics) that we are interested in, and will give them to you randomly. In this way, the advertising company will continue to show us advertisements that may interest us, but without the inconvenience of Cookie notices.
FLoC disappears
Topics will replace FLoC, which was criticized by the EFF in its day for being even worse than Cookies. We will have to wait and see what they say about Topics, but personally and without having analyzed it, it sounds even worse to me: will my browser store everything it learns from me? What if there is a security flaw in Chrome? And Google: won't you have access to all of that at all times? Yes, at least dicen that it will be a Sandbox technology and that we will be able to deactivate them (not enough to leave me alone).
If you were to consult me, and if you want an "Open Source Chrome", I would recommend using Brave, but for those who decide to stay as they are, let them know that Topics is on Google's agenda, and it can make your hair stand on end.