[Fixed] Chrome Browser Error: Attestation check for Topics on https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/ failed – Html

The Problem:

A website is encountering an "Attestation check for Topics on https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/ failed" error in the latest version of Google Chrome (Version 118.0.5993.71 (Official Build) (64-bit)). This error occurs on the first line of the HTML code ( tag) and is displayed in the Dev Console. Despite extensive searching, there seems to be a lack of documentation or guidance from Google regarding this issue. It is unclear whether additional HTML META tags are required to address this error.

The Solutions:

Solution 1: Disable the attestation check and disable the topic API.

If you encounter the error "Attestation check for Topics on https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/ failed" in your Chrome browser, you can resolve it by disabling the attestation check and the Topic API.

To disable the attestation check:

1. Set the following header in your website’s response:

Permissions-Policy: browsing-topics=()

This header will disable the attestation check for the Topics API.

2. You can also use an .htaccess file to set the header. To do this, add the following code to your .htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header set Permissions-Policy "browsing-topics=()"
</IfModule>

This code will set the Permissions-Policy header for all requests to your website.

Note: Disabling the attestation check will prevent Chrome from verifying the authenticity of the Topics API responses. This may impact the accuracy and effectiveness of the Topics API.

Solution 2: Allow browsing topics through Permissions-Policy header

In Express.js, you can use the `res.append()` method to set the `Permissions-Policy` header. By using this method, you can allow browsing topics by setting the `browsing-topics` directive to `()`. Here’s an example:

const express = require("express");
const app = express();

app.use((req, res, next) => {
  res.append("Permissions-Policy", "browsing-topics=()");
  next();
});

Once you add this middleware to your Express.js application, the `Permissions-Policy` header will be set for all HTTP responses, allowing browsing topics.

Solution 3: Set the `Permission-Policy` Header

To avoid the dev console error, you can set the Permission-Policy header in your web server configuration. This header signals to the browser that your website does not use the browsing-topics feature.

For .htaccess File (Apache)

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header set Permissions-Policy "browsing-topics=()"
</IfModule>

For nginx

server {
    ...
    add_header Permissions-Policy "browsing-topics=()" always;
    ...
}

For Node.js (Express)

const express = require("express");
const app = express();

app.use((req, res, next) => {
    res.append('Permissions-Policy', 'browsing-topics=()');
    next();
});

By setting this header, you can prevent the browser from displaying the error message in the Dev Console. However, keep in mind that this is a temporary solution, and once the browsing-topics feature becomes stable, you may need to implement it on your website.

Solution 4: Disable Extensions

There is a possibility that browser extensions can trigger the "Attestation check for Topics on https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/ failed" error.
To address this, you can try disabling browser extensions temporarily and see if the error persists. This will help you determine if a particular extension is causing the issue.

• Here’s a step-by-step guide to disable browser extensions:

  1. Open the browser and click on the icon representing extensions.
  2. This will show a list of installed extensions.
  3. Select the extension you want to disable and click on the disable button.
  4. Restart the browser and see if the error still occurs.

You can re-enable the extensions if you find that they are not causing the issue. If the error disappears after disabling all extensions, you can narrow down the cause to a specific extension or group of extensions. You can then either keep the extensions disabled, or you can contact the developers of the extensions for further support.

Video Explanation: