Google last week announced its intentions to replace third-party cookies with their new ad tech, FLoC, anticipating everyone would join in. But unlike the European Super League, no one seems to be joining Google and Thier cookieless methods.

Google is Taking Away Cookies

For a little backstory, Google announced it was beginning to test a new ad technology inside Google Chrome. They called it, the Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC for short. To them, it’s revolutionary.

It uses algorithms to look at your browser history. Then it groups you with people holding similar browsing histories. They say it’s more private than cookies but some still suspect it have privacy implications.

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For instance, if you don’t implement it right, FLoC could potentially leak vital information and this explains why other browsers are skeptical of the new tech.

Not Everyone is Up For It

Speaking to Brave, Opera and Microsoft, open Chromium Source Browsers, the guys over at the Verge found out that the companies are a tad skeptical of the whole project.

Both Brave and Opera openly feel that FLoC potentially harms user’s privacy. They go in depth noting that it does not seem beneficial saying it’s too early to implement the concept.

Microsoft is no exception either. According to the Verge’s interview, Microsoft do not support solutions that leverage non-consented information.

“Like Google, we support solutions that give users clear consent, and do not bypass consumer choice. That’s also why we do not support solutions that leverage non-consented user identity signals, such as fingerprinting. The industry is on a journey and there will be browser-based proposals that do not need individual user IDs and ID-based proposals that are based on consent and first party relationships.”

Whatever happens this is the of the end of cookies. All browser companies have ideas for how advertising should be. The process may be slow but the stakes are high. By 2022 Google vows to begin the cookie apocalypse but at what cost?