Google Chrome's Topics API Explained + FAQs

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Google Chrome shut down its interest-based advertising proposal and replaced it
with a topics-based advertising proposal.
What is Google Chrome’s Topics API?
Google Chrome's Privacy Sandbox is replacing third-party cookies with Topics,
which will show ads based on the topics a user is interested in.
How will the Topics API work and how will topics be created?
The Topics API will assign a maximum of 5 topics to a user each week based on the
websites they visit, and a 6th random topic will be assigned to the user to provide
reasonable privacy protections.
When a user visits a website, their browser will pass on up to 3 topics to "callers",
such as publishers and AdTech companies. Only callers who have observed a user's
topics will be able to see them.
How many topics will be available with the Topics API?
The Topics catalog will initially include a few hundred to a few thousand topics and
will evolve over time. Websites will be able to create their own topics and will be
assigned ones by the browser.
Will Topics contain sensitive categories, e.g., race, religion, sexuality, and
medical history?
Compared to FLoC, Topics uses a readable list of topics, and it is easier to exclude
sensitive topics. Users will be able to view and control the topics they're associated
with, delete certain topics, and turn off the Topics API altogether.
How does Topics differ from Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC)?
Web browsers will be assigned topics based on their web-browsing behavior. FLoC
would have incorporated on-device processing and machine learning to place web
browsers into a certain cohort based on the websites they've visited.
Why did Google Chrome change from FLoC to Topics?
Google Chrome has moved away from FLoC and towards Topics because of
criticism it received around user privacy.
FLoC was a form of ad personalization, which the EFF said should be eliminated
altogether. Companies could have used the cohort ID to identify individuals, which
goes against what FLoC was designed to do.
How can publishers implement the Topics API into their websites?
Topics API allows publishers to receive topics associated with users visiting their
pages, and can be combined with other contextual signals to select the most
relevant ad.
Publishers will likely be able to use meta tags, HTTP headers, or JavaScript code to
help the classifier identify topics.
How can advertisers show ads to users via the Topics API?
Advertisers will likely target topics by stating which ones they'd like to target, and
then their AdTech platforms will match those topics with the ones obtained from the
Topics API.
What role will AdTech companies play in the targeting and delivery of Topics-
based campaigns?
Topics is a new type of advertising API that allows publishers and advertisers to run
topics-based campaigns. The API limits the number of third parties that can receive
information and does not expose more information than is currently exposed with
third-party cookies.
Is Topics a privacy-friendly ad targeting method?
Topics API offers more privacy protections than FLoC, but the question is whether it
will be valuable for advertisers. It also offers some other privacy-preserving settings,
but the question is whether it will be able to provide enough privacy protections for
users.
Incognito mode will return empty topics, websites can opt out of Topics, and users
will be able to view and change their topics.
Will the Topics API be implemented into other web browsers apart from
Google Chrome?
Ben Galbraith, Chrome's product director, said that other browsers haven't stated
whether they will adopt the Topics API, so we can expect that they likely won't.
When will Google Chrome’s Topics API be released?
The Topics API has just been announced and the other Privacy Sandbox proposals
are in various stages of development. The exact release date is not set yet.