The "Do Not Track" signal was more useful as an additional fingerprinting signal than it was at stopping tracking.
Perhaps now we can get something more robust in the works.
Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
71–80 of 270 posts
Re: Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
the conversation / system is rigged. how it should have been done in a fair way: 1. assume the user by default does not want to be tracked and make do-not-track opt-out. 2. have it running for a few years and gradually increase the heat on the discussion that nobody respects it. If it would've been done this way it would've been newsworthy and maybe would've been considered as something to enforce via regulation (at…
How can we know you didnt want to be stabbed if we dont stab you first?
Ah, an RFC 35140 reference
Re: Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
#73Removing this feature harms user agency. This will result in Firefox users having to deal with more annoying consent prompts. Transcend Consent Management's default configuration opts users out of every unessential tracking purpose (and suppresses automatic consent prompts) whenever DNT is enabled, but only opts users out of "Sale/sharing of info" when only GPC is enabled. Removing this centralized privacy signal mea…
> Removing this feature harms user agency It doesn't, because nobody respects it. It is actually harmful to have a feature that misrepresents its efficiency to users, especially when it comes to privacy and security. Nobody should ever feel that they will not be tracked because they enabled do-not-track, because it's wrong. Removing it is the right thing to do because of this.
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Re: Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
An obvious solution would be to turn it on by default
That's exactly what killed it. Everyone started ignoring it once Edge defaulted it to on.
But without it defaulting to "on", it would have died anyway. That's why the entire effort was doomed from the very start.
The only way that anything like this can possibly succeed is through legislation.
Re: Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
#75My recommendations:
https://consentomatic.au.dk/ - automagically denies consent to GDPR banners https://ublockorigin.com/ - the one and only https://decentraleyes.org/ - skip tracking CDNs
Re: Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
#76Browsers have such a low switching cost. I like Firefox because it has seemed aligned with me against web advertisements. Not even privacy, per se, but web advertisements specifically. If it stopped being that, I might as well go back to Chrome, which works a lot better on a lot of websites. Not saying Firefox is evil now, just saying there is nothing keeping me around if I get the sense that it's changing in ways I…
Sunsetting this feature doesn't indicate Firefox has changed their opinions. DNT was never effective, and provided a false sense of security. No tracking company respected it, so it just became a meaningless setting.
Re: Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
#77I was at Mozilla when this was implemented. It was completely optional for websites to support this. A few did at first. A lot of people internally wanted it to be on-by-default, but the argument was that if it was, nobody would respect it – after all, what tracking platform would willingly only track the 0.1% of people who went into the settings to enable it? (Internet Explorer did eventually enable it by default, w…
There are lots of entities out there that assume consent.
Re: Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
#78DNT was dead the moment some web browsers enabled it by default. No regular user will uncheck this setting, buried in a settings screen.
Re: Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
#79DNT is legally effective.
A German court ruled:
"According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the right to object to the processing of personal data can also be exercised using automated procedures. A DNT signal represents an effective contradiction."
https://cybernews.com/tech/germany-court-bans-linkedin-from-...
Re: Firefox removes "do not track" feature support
#80I was at Mozilla when this was implemented. It was completely optional for websites to support this. A few did at first. A lot of people internally wanted it to be on-by-default, but the argument was that if it was, nobody would respect it – after all, what tracking platform would willingly only track the 0.1% of people who went into the settings to enable it? (Internet Explorer did eventually enable it by default, w…
I fully agree and have said it for years.
Microsoft is the main culprit of DNT failures.