Google proposed Topics API to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome. Topics API is replacing FLoC after widespread community feedback.
In Topics API, Chrome determines topics that “represent your top interests for that week based on your browsing history.” Chrome will “leverage a classifier model to map site hostnames to topics.”
For each week, the user’s top 5 topics are calculated using browsing information local to the browser. One additional topic, chosen uniformly at random, is appended for a total of 6 topics associated with the user for that week/epoch.
The topics include news, travel, and fitness. Topics will be stored for three weeks before automatic deletion.
Chrome will also allow users to view and remove their topics. There will also be the ability to disable the feature entirely.
Google says topics are thoughtfully curated by humans and “will not include potentially sensitive categories, such as gender or race.”
When you visit a site that requests your topics, your browser will pick “one topic from each of the past three weeks” to share with advertising partners and publications. They will then use that information to serve ads relevant to your interests/topics.
Google plans to launch Topics API in Chrome by the end of Q1 this year.