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IE10 to send "Do Not Track" DNT header by default

blogs.technet.com

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Re: IE10 to send "Do Not Track" DNT header by default

#6

Post by singingwolfboy »

This is a really bad idea. Most people don't change defaults -- the idea behind DNT is that the people who care about privacy can easily take steps to assure their own privacy. As long as businesses know that browsers sending the DNT header are sending it intentionally, there's a chance that websites will respect it.

With this change, DNT becomes meaningless. How can businesses determine which users are OK with being tracked, and which are not? Since it's technologically easier to simply track everyone, and it makes good business sense to gather as many metrics as possible, businesses will simply argue that they can't respect a header that most people don't know/care about (since it was on by default). That makes things worse for the people who do care about it.

Re: IE10 to send "Do Not Track" DNT header by default

#7

Post by recoiledsnake »

paulgb wrote: post #2

I like the idea of privacy-by-default, but I can't help thinking they're announcing it prematurely for the PR. It may even undermine voluntary adoption of the tag, since it no longer represents an explicit request not to track.

They just released a new version of IE10 preview and it's expected to go gold in about 2 months, so they're giving time for websites to prepare before releasing it.

>It may even undermine voluntary adoption of the tag, since it no longer represents an explicit request not to track

I think this is sort of like how Apple disabled third party cookies in Safari on the iPhone by default and then Google was caught circumventing it. It could end up in a PR nightmare for advertizing companies if they don't follow DNT requests, whether opt-in or opt-out.

Re: IE10 to send "Do Not Track" DNT header by default

#8

Post by eli »

Seems like a terrible idea. I think the vast majority of online marketing companies are very willing to let people opt-out of tracking [1], but people who haven't expressed a preference? If DNT header becomes the default for browsers then I predict ignoring DNT will become the default for ad networks.

[1] http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

Re: IE10 to send "Do Not Track" DNT header by default

#10

Post by jlarocco »

singingwolfboy wrote: post #6

This is a really bad idea. Most people don't change defaults -- the idea behind DNT is that the people who care about privacy can easily take steps to assure their own privacy. As long as businesses know that browsers sending the DNT header are sending it intentionally , there's a chance that websites will respect it. With this change, DNT becomes meaningless. How can businesses determine which users are OK with bein…

I had the exact opposite feeling.

First, everybody cares about privacy. Just because businesses have taken advantage of users being clueless, doesn't mean those clueless people don't care about privacy.

Second, your "nobody knows about it" argument can cut the other way. How can a business track people when most people don't know/care that they can opt out of being tracked?

Nobody wants to mention it, but the truth is that if it were on by default, few people would turn off DNT once they knew what it was for.

I don't like MS, and I don't even own a computer that can run IE10, but I think this is a great idea.

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