Definition: Federated Learning of Cohorts [FLoC]


FLoC was a way of tracking people for advertising purposes (both targeting and conversion tracking) from Google, which places people into groups so that no individuals can be identified.

Announced in 2019, FLoC was intended as a response to the end of third-party cookies and the iOS14 update. However, on 25th January 2022 Google announced that FLoC was no longer being developed and would be replaced with a new product – Topics API.

Before its cancellation, FLoC was widely criticised for many reasons, with the chief one being that individual users could still be identified within cohorts.

Glossary Index