Internet Giants To Honor the 'No' In 'No Tracking'

theodp writes "The WSJ reports that a coalition of Internet giants including Google has agreed to support a do-not-track button to be embedded in most Web browsers — a move that the industry had been resisting for more than a year. The new do-not-track button isn't going to stop all Web tracking. The companies have agreed to stop using the data about people's Web browsing habits to customize ads, and have agreed not to use the data for employment, credit, health-care or insurance purposes. But the data can still be used for some purposes such as 'market research' and 'product development' and can still be obtained by law enforcement officers. Meanwhile, after Google got caught last week bypassing privacy settings on Safari, and was accused of also circumventing IE's P3P Privacy Protection feature, CBS MoneyWatch contacted Mozilla to see if it had noticed Google bypassing Firefox's privacy controls. After reports that Google ponied up close to a billion dollars to Mozilla to beat out a Microsoft bid, this seems to be one of those have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife type questions that has no good answer. Anyway, according to a statement attributed to Alex Fowler, global privacy and public policy lead for Mozilla: 'Our testing did not reveal any instances of Google bypassing user privacy settings.'"

Comments

Should be 'Opt-In'

[sohmc]

On Firefox, the "Tell websites I do not want to be tracked" is not enabled by default. I don't understand why this is not the default action.

The option should be "Tell websites I'm okay with being tracked" and should be ticked off by default.

I know when the feature was announced and then released, it was talked about for a few days and then went by the wayside. This was primarily due to the fact that Google, et al, had NO obligation to actually abide by this setting.

With the White House (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46495868/ns/technology_and_science-security/) announcing a new privacy plan, it will be interesting to see if the companies decide to self-regulate or if it will take the force of law to make them regulate.

Re:Should be 'Opt-In'

[Svippy]

Ok, but why Firefox would care about Google?

Do you know from where Mozilla gets their money?

Re:Should be 'Opt-In'

[arth1]

Ok, but why Firefox would care about Google?

I don't expect people to read TFA, but can't you read TFS?
He who pays the piper calls the tune. And "close to a billion dollar" isn't pocket change either.

Re:Should be 'Opt-In'

[Anonymous Coward]

On Firefox, the "Tell websites I do not want to be tracked" is not enabled by default. I don't understand why this is not the default action.

The whole point of Do Not Track is that it indicates a specific conscious request by the user not to be tracked. Anyone ignoring it is explicitly deciding not to respect the user's wishes and can't claim otherwise. Having it enabled by default allows it to be handwaved away as some arcane browser setting that "real users" don't know or care about.

Re:Should be 'Opt-In'

[Derek Pomery]

Insightful? Really?

This keeps coming up...
http://blog.mozilla.com/privacy/2011/11/09/dnt-cannot-be-default/

"As Do Not Track picks up steam and standardization is well underway in the W3C, people have begun asking, âoeIf Do Not Track is so good for the web, why donâ(TM)t you turn it on by default?â

Frankly, it becomes meaningless if we enable it by default for all our users. Do Not Track is intended to express an individualâ(TM)s choice, or preference, to not be tracked. Itâ(TM)s important that the signal represents a choice made by the person behind the keyboard and not the software maker, because ultimately itâ(TM)s not Firefox being tracked, itâ(TM)s the user.

Mozillaâ(TM)s mission is to give users this choice and control over their browsing experience. We wonâ(TM)t turn on Do Not Track by default because then it would be Mozilla making the choice, not the individual. Since this is a choice for the user to make, we cannot send the signal automatically but will empower them with the tools they need to do it.

Do Not Track is not Mozillaâ(TM)s position on tracking, itâ(TM)s the individualâ(TM)s â" and thatâ(TM)s what makes it great! For that reason we have no plans to turn on Do Not Track by default."

Re:Should be 'Opt-In'

[Luckyo]

Similar argument was used when used were opted in by default into "allowing non-intrusive advertising" in adblock.

It makes sense. If everyone is opted out, no one will honour the opt-out and it will become meaningless.

That said, if you don't want to be tracked on firefox, you should be using ghostery.

Re:Should be 'Opt-In'

[Derek Pomery]

??? They do present the choice to the user.
Options->Privacy (where you would expect privacy stuff to be)
And it is at the very top of the tab. A big checkbox.
Tracking:
"Tell websites I do not want to be tracked"

Really. This is just pure nonsense, people.

Still dont trust them

[Lumpy]

I'm going to still use client side aggressive tactics to force them to do "no tracking" or at least make it hard for them. Sorry, but I don't trust them and all it takes is one scumbag company (doubleclick) to act as a harvester that everyone else uses.

Re:Still dont trust them

[CastrTroy]

I very much agree with this. I've disabled 3rd party cookies, delete all cookies after I shut down the browser (which I do frequently), and I have flashblock. I haven't gone so far as to use no-script, but that's another option for people who want to be tracked even less. Sure Google and other big sites can start adhering to the do-not-track stuff, but it's the smaller guys that worry me a lot more than Google.

Re:Still dont trust them

[Lumpy]

I've added ghostery and do not track plus. Both are aggressive and blocking tracking info.

Re:Still dont trust them

[RandomNick892]

As that WSJ and other articles are pointing out, the "Internet Giants" will *not* be honoring the No in No Tracking. They've supposedly agreed to curtail only some specific narrow practices. They will continue a wide range of practices which are fundamentally inconsistent with the concept of No Tracking. Aggressive client side tactics are the only way to go. However, lets not forget that the "Internet Giants" want to lock us into cloud/SaaS models and control what our client platforms can and cannot do. Aggressive consumer tactics are needed in order to prevent the later from becoming our future.

But NoScript et. al works better...

[MrCrassic]

I really doubt the efficacy of this privilege when it's currently completely optional and advertising companies, by their definition, rely on less privacy to make a profit.

Until the do-not-track feature becomes a law (which I hope it does, though I'm sure these companies will find ways around it), there should be more education about NoScript and other such alternatives to those who really care about controlling their privacy and exposure.

Re:Easy answer

[Inconexo]

That trap is supposed to work only as a yes/no question.

Suppose a form:

Have you stopped beating your wife?

[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] NR/DK

All three options are bad.

Bullshit.

[__aavqan3009]

"We lied earlier but NOW we promise to not track you". Bullshit.

Re:Name one good thing

[Fnord666]

Can anybody name a single good thing that came out of all this enormous data collection effort? What is better for the consumer today than it was twenty years ago when there was no internet and no tracking?

The problem here is that you see yourself as the consumer. For a great deal of sites where the money is made on the internet, you are not the consumer, you're the product.

Gee, objective and factual article you have there.

[Skuto]

I don't understand why the editors even post such crap. The comments are supposed to be stupid here, not the articles themselves!

Do Not Track was a feature *introduced in Firefox and promoted by Mozilla*. Every browser ended up implementing it, and last of all Chrome did so grudgingly, mostly because Google didn't want to be the only one not to have it. Whether it's effective or not I'll leave up to debate - I prefer to use Ghostery myself and not rely on sites to cooperate. Call me cynical.

The second paragraph of the article is entirely a troll: the "have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife type questions that has no good answer" turns out to *have* an answer, it just didn't fit the viewpoint of the poster, who doesn't want to acknowledge that.

Re:theodp needs a lesson in being objective

[Anthony Mouse]

Frankly this corporate cheerleading is getting a little old and one begins to wonder if there isn't something to the rumor that Google pays posters to hang around at geek sites to protect their branding.

So which company is it that pays you to do it then? Should we look for evidence of you being a shill, if we're being so suspicious of people?

Google "Does no evil"

People who claim that Google's motto is "do no evil" instead of "don't be evil" in the face of basically anyone who pays any attention correcting them continuously is either being willfully ignorant or is being paid to be willfully ignorant. Shills prefer "do no evil" because it's an impossible standard: Nobody agrees what evil is. If they work with copyright holders then they're evil MAFIAA censors, if they refuse then they're evil pirate sympathizers wrecking the economy, if they look for middle ground then they're both.

Now let's consider the disregard for facts (typical of shills):

if they weren't they wouldn't have become a fortune 50 company

Apple and Microsoft are in the Fortune 50. Google is number 92 (on the 2011 list).

That's just this post. Do you want to see if anyone is interested in looking through your history for more evidence that someone is paying you to attack Google (like repeated postings of the same talking points), or are you finished trolling?