The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
nytimes.com
The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
1–10 of 51 posts
Re: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
#2The worst part about the DNT header was the requirement for the tracking companies to regulate themselves. Initially, the header was opt-in, but with the introduction of IE10, Microsoft decided that the option was going to be opt-out. Once the the DNT header was gaining traction and a not-so-small percentage of people began sending the header, the companies had no reason to comply, and the initiative sorta fell out of favor.
For blocking tracking, the most effective tools are browser extensions made to block ads. Ghostery provides comparisons on an non-biased website between the methods of blocking tracking through browser modifications [1]. According to the site, the Do Not Track header actually has an effect with a difference of 18% in cookie size when the header is set. AdBlock Edge and disabling third-party cookies results in a 59% and 40% decrease in cookie size respectively. It seems that the easiest thing you can do to lessen your internet footprint would be to disable third-party cookies and enable the DNT header, and the majority of tracking can be eliminated through the use of a browser extension. (But with the recent revelations [2], using a browser extension may actually reduce your browsing experience if you don't have the RAM to spare.)
[1] http://www.areweprivateyet.com/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8802424
Re: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
#3The worst part about the DNT header was the requirement for the tracking companies to regulate themselves. Initially, the header was opt-in, but with the introduction of IE10, Microsoft decided that the option was going to be opt-out. Once the the DNT header was gaining traction and a not-so-small percentage of people began sending the header, the companies had no reason to comply, and the initiative sorta fell out o…
Wont you always be trackable by an heuristic approach?
I would expect that a fuzzy hash of your ip,location,language settings,resolution, browsertype, average mousespeed, your computers speed to draw a circle, calc a prime etc etc etc will always identify you.
Re: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
#4The worst part about the DNT header was the requirement for the tracking companies to regulate themselves. Initially, the header was opt-in, but with the introduction of IE10, Microsoft decided that the option was going to be opt-out. Once the the DNT header was gaining traction and a not-so-small percentage of people began sending the header, the companies had no reason to comply, and the initiative sorta fell out o…
Wont you always be trackable by an heuristic approach? I would expect that a fuzzy hash of your ip,location,language settings,resolution, browsertype, average mousespeed, your computers speed to draw a circle, calc a prime etc etc etc will always identify you.
This site is good for some analysis of exactly that type of fingerprinting
Re: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
#5The worst part about the DNT header was the requirement for the tracking companies to regulate themselves. Initially, the header was opt-in, but with the introduction of IE10, Microsoft decided that the option was going to be opt-out. Once the the DNT header was gaining traction and a not-so-small percentage of people began sending the header, the companies had no reason to comply, and the initiative sorta fell out o…
Unfortunately, most mobile device browsers do not support plugins. (That is why I started to write a proxy server for myself two weeks ago.)
Re: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
#6DNT was essentially dead quite a while ago.
If we are goign to get something like Do Not Track, then it should have been drafted out of the public eye, had a nice short period for public comment and then recieved some sort of backing in law. Speculative implementations didn't really help.
I'm not too familiar with the laws surrounding things like 'do not call' lists and anti-spam measures, but some sort of system from that area of law could surely have been a part of DNT.
Re: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
#7The worst part about the DNT header was the requirement for the tracking companies to regulate themselves. Initially, the header was opt-in, but with the introduction of IE10, Microsoft decided that the option was going to be opt-out. Once the the DNT header was gaining traction and a not-so-small percentage of people began sending the header, the companies had no reason to comply, and the initiative sorta fell out o…
Wont you always be trackable by an heuristic approach? I would expect that a fuzzy hash of your ip,location,language settings,resolution, browsertype, average mousespeed, your computers speed to draw a circle, calc a prime etc etc etc will always identify you.
So we ought to start considering whether those things should be permissible by default in browsers.
It used to be that sites could inspect the clipboard until we realised how bad for security that was. Perhaps mouse movement and/or timing information should be something that isn't allowed by default without granting the site additional permissions. Perhaps browsers could be set to stop sending many of the headers they currently send by default, or send approximations to reduce the uniqueness of the headers.
Re: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wont you always be trackable by an heuristic approach? I would expect that a fuzzy hash of your ip,location,language settings,resolution, browsertype, average mousespeed, your computers speed to draw a circle, calc a prime etc etc etc will always identify you.
So we ought to start considering whether those things should be permissible by default in browsers. It used to be that sites could inspect the clipboard until we realised how bad for security that was. Perhaps mouse movement and/or timing information should be something that isn't allowed by default without granting the site additional permissions. Perhaps browsers could be set to stop sending many of the headers the…
My opinion is that javascript should be opt-in. The idea that any junk website is allowed to execute code on your machine without asking or even the user being aware is a fundamental security flaw.
Re: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wont you always be trackable by an heuristic approach? I would expect that a fuzzy hash of your ip,location,language settings,resolution, browsertype, average mousespeed, your computers speed to draw a circle, calc a prime etc etc etc will always identify you.
So we ought to start considering whether those things should be permissible by default in browsers. It used to be that sites could inspect the clipboard until we realised how bad for security that was. Perhaps mouse movement and/or timing information should be something that isn't allowed by default without granting the site additional permissions. Perhaps browsers could be set to stop sending many of the headers the…
Two of the worst offenders are overly-specific user agents (a setting which should definitely be configurable) and list of plugins (which I see no reason for being available).
Re: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’
#10This is one thing that could have been done better in Europe.