Opting Out of Chrome's Privacy Sandbox Test-Run

Google's Chrome browser has launched a new Privacy Sandbox trial, as part of the company's attempts to find a replacement or an alternative entity to the third-party cookie used in browsers. This test run called Privacy Sandbox is also referred to as the FLoC or Federated Learning of Cohorts - a new type of tracking on the web that uses what Google calls "federated learning".

Google pushed back the full deployment of its FLoC for the middle of 2023. However, it there are reports that some users seem to have been chosen as part of a limited roll-out that acts as a trial period. The issue is, according to sources such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the FLoC is not as great of an idea as it may seem at first. The EEF actually went so far as to call it a "terrible idea" and outlined new privacy problems that the new system can introduce.

If you find yourself part of the trial run for the Privacy Sandbox in Chrome, here is what you can do to opt out of it.

If you are running Chrome on a PC or a Mac computer, launch your Chrome browser, click your address bar, enter the following and then hit Enter:

chrome://settings/privacySandbox

If you are running Chrome on an Android device, open the browser, then tap on Settings, then on Privacy and security, and finally on Privacy Sandbox.

This will bring up Chrome's settings window on a computer and focus it on the new settings, or bring up the mobile version's privacy sandbox settings.

On both the mobile and computer version of the browser, the interface and page for the privacy sandbox will have a toggle. In some instances, depending on resolutions as well, you might need to scroll the browser window a little to see it, but it will be there. Click the toggle to set it to the 'off' position.

This is all you need to do to opt out of the Privacy Sandbox trial, in case you have been enrolled in it and you can see those settings pages in your browser.

At the time of writing, the Privacy Sandbox trial seems to be absent from the iOS version of the Chrome browser.