Google LLC’s attempt to replace browser cookies with an alternative system called FLoC has now been rejected by Automattic Inc., the company behind WordPress, the content management system that powers about 40% of all websites.

FLoC, short for Federated Learning of Cohorts, was first proposed by Google in January as a way to eliminate third-party cookies by replacing them with a viable privacy-first alternative. Cookies are nearly as old as the World Wide Web and allow various sites and advertisers to track what users do. While having unalloyed positive uses, such as remembering that a user has already signed into a site, they’re also used for targeted advertising.

FLoC is delivered as a piece of software that runs in the user’s browser. It analyzes their online activity using machine learning and deduces what topics they’re interested in.

Subsequently, FLoC adds a user to a so-called “cohort” along with hundreds or thousands of other individuals who share the same interests. FLoC allows advertisers to target their ads at a cohort but doesn’t provide them with data about the online activity of the individuals who make up the cohort.

Despite the seemingly good intentions of Google, Automattic and WordPress don’t agree with Google’s intent and argue that FLoC is discriminatory.

“WordPress powers approximately 41% of the web – and this community can help combat racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and discrimination against those with mental illness with four lines of code,” the WordPress site said in a statement Sunday arguing that FLoC is a security concern that it will block.

What WordPress doesn’t address is that cookies already do what they’re rallying against FLoC for.

“When balancing the stakeholder interests, the needs of website administrators who are not even aware that this is something that they need to mitigate – and the interests of the users and visitors to those sites, is simply more compelling,” WordPress added.

WordPress and Automattic are not alone in having concerns about FLoC. DuckDuckGo has launched a Chrome extension to block FLoC tracking and the developers of both the Brave and the Vivaldi browsers have also spoken out against it.

Image: Google