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FTC Wants Browsers To Block Online Tracking

storagedude writes "The FTC wants a do-not-track mechanism that would allow Web users to opt out of online behavioral tracking, similar to the national do-not-call registry. The agency's preferred method for accomplishing this would be a browser-based tool that would give users the option of blocking data collection across the Web. The only problem is that the agency may not have the authority to require this, thanks to concerted lobbying efforts by the advertising industry. The first step may just be voluntary measures, to be released this fall."

5 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? by DDLKermit007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought this was called disable cookies, and delete all browsing data upon exit? This isn't even an issue. Do that, and they can track you about as well as what phone prompts you chose when you call support.

    1. Re:Huh? by nmg196 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because if you disable cookies - you cannot log in to any website. Hardly practical.

  2. a lesson for libertarians by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and assorted free market fundamentalists:

    you need government regulations. you want to pay taxes for the legions of government bureaucrats toiling away somewhere interfering with business

    because without such regulation business will trample your rights

    you heard me correctly: the government protects your rights and corporations trample them. i'm sorry of this idea contrasts with certain brands of low brain wattage propaganda about the government trampling your rights: if the paranoid schizophrenic fantasies of certain right wing zealots ever come to fruition, those abuses will not happen at the hands of washington dc, they will happen at the hands of large corporate entities

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  3. why are the politicians interests by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Insightful

    separate form their constituents interests?

    because of infection of the government by corporate money

    read the first sentence:

    "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

    We. The. People.

    to the extent that the interests of the corporations are more important to the politicians than the interests of we the people, is the extent to which that government MUST BE CLEANED UP, not destroyed

    your position is this: you see a sick person in front of you (the government). your solution is to condemn the sick person, rather than treat him for the disease

    "At least a "greedy" corporation is putting people to work"

    additionally, you completely absolve the disease of any wrongdoing for the fact that the patient is sick

    it just blows my fucking mind, its fucking incredible: that some people should see the corporate infection of our government and conclude the only solution is to destroy the government!

    the only thing standing between us and the infection that is the real source of the abuse of our rights is the government. it needs to be CLEANED UP, not DESTROYED, or then all of the abuses you see GET WORSE. that really is the truth. wake the fuck up

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  4. if government is weak by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    then there is a power vacuum

    that power vacuum will be filled by corporations, who will employ blackwater private security forces against individual liberty

    am i talking science fiction?

    no, i'm talking HISTORICAL AMERICAN FACT

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency

    why is it that so many free market fundamentalists forget about the banking panics in the 1800s (no regulations=bubbles and pops... hello 2008)? why do so many libertarians ignore the abuses of individual liberties by corporations in the gilded age (corporations, not governments, remove your liberties)? why do so many right wing small government zealots completely ignore the hard fought and hard won protections for workers in the 1800s? (40 hour work week, minimum wage, etc... you think these ideas were not developed in an atmosphere of constant abuse of the individual by corporations?)

    fact, solid motherfucking fact: corporations will abuse your individual liberties as much as they can in the pursuit of the buck. they ARE NOT BEHOLDEN TO YOU. you NEED the government as your protector with all those regulations and enforcement, or YOU WILL BE ABUSED. to the extent that the government has been coopted by corporate interests and infected from the inside is the extent YOU NEED TO CLEAN UP YOUR GOVERNMENT OF CORPORATE INFECTION...not destroy the only entity which keeps the REAL abusers from defiling your rights!

    corporations are the single greatest abusers of individual liberties. government is your only source of protection from those abuses. you NEED a strong central government, or every abuse you detest will be visited upon you MORE

    so stop working to DESTROY government, start working to CLEAN UP government

    if you argue for smaller government, in the name of individual liberties, the real world effect of your efforts is increased abuses of individual liberties, because you do not understand who the real abusers are

    if the patient is sick, don't kill the patient and let the disease spread, treat the patient of the disease and stop the spread of the disease. fight the disease, not the patient. the patient is YOUR government, the disease is corporate dollars

    read the first fucking sentence:

    "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

    WE. THE. PEOPLE. to the extent that the government is not we the people is the extent to which it has been corrupted by corporate dollars. so get rid of the corporate dollars, not the government!

    reclaim YOUR government from corporate infection and make it a more effective tool in protecting your rights and freedoms from the real abusers: corporations who would destroy your rights and freedoms, and have done so in the past, and will happily do so again in the pursuit of more profit, if there is only a weak ineffective government between them and more profit

    CLEAN UP GOVERNMENT. DON'T DESTROY THE ONLY THING THAT PROTECTS YOU FROM THE REAL ABUSERS OF YOUR RIGHTS

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it