Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

IE10 Will Have 'Do Not Track' On By Default

Posted by Soulskill on from the stop-or-i'll-say-stop-again dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As Microsoft released the preview of the next version of its Internet Explorer browser, news that in Windows 8 the browser will be sending a 'Do Not Track' signal to Web sites by default must have shaken online advertising giants. 'Consumers can change this default setting if they choose,' Microsoft noted, but added that this decision reflects their commitment to providing Windows customers an experience that is 'private by default' in an era when so much user data is collected online.' This step will make Internet Explorer 10 the first web browser with DNT on by default. And while the websites are not required to comply with the users' do-not-track request, the DNT initiative — started by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission — is making good progress."

34 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. OK but... by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's nice on the one hand that Microsoft is making the privacy option the default, but if DNT is unenforceable, wouldn't "DNT by default" give certain entities an excuse to ignore the DNT flag by default?

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    1. Re:OK but... by Moheeheeko · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Sounds to me like this will end up like the internet version of the "Do Not Call" list.

      Ask my family on how that one worked out.

    2. Re:OK but... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sounds to me like this will end up like the internet version of the "Do Not Call" list.

      Ask my family on how that one worked out.

      It seems to be working pretty well to me. I still get some unsolicited calls, but probably about 10% of what I got before NDNC. Most of the remaining calls are from charities and political polling organizations which are exempted from NDNC.

    3. Re:OK but... by Pope · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sounds to me like this will end up like the internet version of the "Do Not Call" list.

      Ask my family on how that one worked out.

      OK. What time are they usually home?

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    4. Re:OK but... by NatasRevol · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I know language is a dynamic thing, but wow.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    5. Re:OK but... by lbk70 · · Score: 2

      I also had a marked decrease in unsolicited calls when I got on the DNC list. For the charities and political groups, I politely ask them to take me off their call lists and they never call again.

    6. Re:OK but... by idontgno · · Score: 2

      See? You're doing it wrong.

      You should robo-dial them all hours of the day and night until someone answers.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    7. Re:OK but... by Metabolife · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't be ludicrousity man. He has an eloquentocity about him that your feeblistic mind could never comprehendency.

    8. Re:OK but... by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

      Fo' shizzle.

      .
      . ...what?

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  2. Good job, MS by Sloppy · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've come to like complexity in villainous characters. I know, I know, it's all the rage now; I'm just saying this is a bandwagon I jumped on. They can't all be Saurons, give me a Jaime Lannister now and then.

    --
    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  3. This is a direct assault on Google's revenue by RobinH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google makes it money from tracking users and selling customized ads. Google would look bad if they didn't honor DNT. Microsoft is setting the standard that DNT should be on by default, which reduces the ability for Google to track you all over the web. MS is not an ad company, so they really won't feel this as much.

    --
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
    1. Re:This is a direct assault on Google's revenue by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, this is an attack on Google, and has little to do with being "pro-consumer". In fact, I would consider it "anti-consumer", since non-paranoid people benefit from tracking, because it means the ads they are going to see anyway are tailored to their actual interests. I have no interest in turning off tracking, and want ad agencies to have as much information about me and my interests as I can give them.

      Just in case Google is parsing this post: I will be buying a new mini-van later this summer.

    2. Re:This is a direct assault on Google's revenue by Frankie70 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just in case Google is parsing this post: I will be buying a new mini-van later this summer.

      We already know. We started the process to make you want a new van 3 weeks ago by showing ads for minivans 3 weeks ago. We also know you finally made up you mind yesterday.

      - The Google Team.

  4. Trying to mitigate risky move by sideslash · · Score: 2

    Microsoft is making a bold (translate: risky) move with the huge changes in Windows 8, and they will need all the consumer sympathy they can muster. I classify the decision to include Flash support for select sites (e.g. disney.com) is in the same category with this default DNT policy. When October comes around, get out the popcorn.

  5. Who's DNT are they honoring? by s.petry · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sorry, but Windows has phoned home for at least 10 years, and sent data without user knowledge to 3rd party companies that could be traced to MS. IE may claim to have DNT on by default, but let's be clear. You will still be sending all kinds of tracking information to MS.

    Seems to me to be a ploy to make money selling data to Google perhaps that Google gets now on their own.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Who's DNT are they honoring? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is more of an anti-google move in the guise of privacy protection. They want Google ads to be less targeted to hurt their competition.

    2. Re:Who's DNT are they honoring? by recoiledsnake · · Score: 2

      >sent data without user knowledge to 3rd party companies that could be traced to MS

      Citation needed and stupid Slashdot posts and rants don't count.

      --
      This space for rent.
    3. Re:Who's DNT are they honoring? by mystikkman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sorry, but Windows has phoned home for at least 10 years, and sent data without user knowledge to 3rd party companies that could be traced to MS. IE may claim to have DNT on by default, but let's be clear. You will still be sending all kinds of tracking information to MS.

      Seems to me to be a ploy to make money selling data to Google perhaps that Google gets now on their own.

      This post is a perfect example of horseshit that regularly goes for +5 informative on Slashdot. Websites like Google track you and follow you around the web with ads and customizes the ads to your browsing history. MS? Does it really even know that you visited some site with Google ads on them(most of the websites around)?

      > You will still be sending all kinds of tracking information to MS

      What kinds of tracking information???

    4. Re:Who's DNT are they honoring? by recoiledsnake · · Score: 2

      I'm sorry you fail at Google. No, I'm not going to Google that for you. If you don't trust information from the Google, then put a network sniffer on your home network, load a brand new PC with Windows and make it the only device outside of the sniffer on your network. Watch, and be amazed.

      Ahh, hand waving.

      I set up Fiddler2 which can even decode HTTPS locally and didn't find anything interesting going over the wire.

      So if you have, please share and amaze me and us.

      Or provide at least ONE reference that you think is credible, because all I see is BS when I search.

      If you cannot, then I'll just assume you're talking BS.

      --
      This space for rent.
    5. Re:Who's DNT are they honoring? by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      Pretty bizarre test IMO. A brand new PC with Windows:

      - Contains software pre-installed by the Vendor. Expect the usual Symantec/Norton pre-installed crap to be phoning home every five minutes
      - Likewise, except it to phone home to HP, Dell, or whatever, to download the latest ads... uh, I mean, "alerts". Yeah, yeah.
      - Will phone home to Microsoft periodically to check for updates

      Ubuntu actually does that last one too. Hell, for all I know, it does the first too, but I've never checked. Actually, no, wait, I know it does, because Firefox is the default browser, and that's getting all cloudy and "I can haz update?" these days.

      OMG! UBUNTU IS SPYING ON ME!

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    6. Re:Who's DNT are they honoring? by recoiledsnake · · Score: 2

      >It tells you explicitely that MS will give your info to a third party for so-called "statistical" purpose

      Maybe you should read the thread and notice that I wasn't talking about packet sniffing proving that MS sends info.

      Also, how does Microsoft get your personal info that it sends to an alleged unnamed mysterious 3rd parties? By carrier pigeon bypassing your internet? Do you mail them USB keys of your information? Geez, even the Apollo moon landing and 911 conspiracy theories make more sense than this BS you're spouting.

      Let me make it simple. Example of your personal information is your Name, Age and Gender. You buy a Dell computer at Best Buy and take it home and plug it in and use it for a week.

      Now tell me how your Name, Age and Gender end up at this alleged third party.

      --
      This space for rent.
  6. The Real Question by clarkn0va · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Will the next version of Windows be the first in decades to not collect personally identifiable information from every user, by way of activation and other control schemes?

    It might make the marketeers feel all good inside to spout platitudes like "private by default' in an era when so much user data is collected online," but let MS apply the same sacrosanct wisdom to its own practise.

    --
    I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
    1. Re:The Real Question by gl4ss · · Score: 2

      huh? they're pushing you to use your live account just to log in to your own computer and to user programs provided through their store framework. if anything it's opposite of that. sure it's private by default - but not to ms!

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  7. Re:What about 3rd party cookies? by Krojack · · Score: 2

    I disabled 3rd-party cookies in FF and everything was fine for years till my bank changed their online banking. For the longest time I couldn't get it to work then one day I enabled 3rd-party cookies and BAM it worked. Yeah it just seems wrong when an online banking site requires you to also connect to a 3rd-party domain for some unknown reason. The 3rd-party domain is "billdomain.com"

  8. Expect browser add-ons to work around this ... by perpenso · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's nice on the one hand that Microsoft is making the privacy option the default, but if DNT is unenforceable, wouldn't "DNT by default" give certain entities an excuse to ignore the DNT flag by default?

    Expect browser add-ons to work around this. Their EULAs will mention this so there may be no DNT enforceability issue, the user clicked yes. Google, Facebook, etc will surely have various add-ons that will "enhance" the IE10 experience.

    1. Re:Expect browser add-ons to work around this ... by baka_toroi · · Score: 2

      It's worth mentioning that Adobe Flash will be integrated on Metro IE, even though it doesn't support plugins.

    2. Re:Expect browser add-ons to work around this ... by recoiledsnake · · Score: 2

      That's because Flash is not a plugin in Metro IE, it's integrated like PNG or GIF is. Hope it won't cause too many security issues.

      --
      This space for rent.
  9. Three word summary by mtrachtenberg · · Score: 2

    Take that, Google.

    (or, in reality, an alternative three words beginning with the letter f.)

  10. Do we really want this? by roosauce · · Score: 2

    This is a potential disaster in my eyes. We're talking about destroying the commercial web here. Advertising, for all its foibles, underpins vast amounts of free content and services. Data largely drives that value these days, by making ad distribution more efficient. The vast majority of the data underpinning this is anonymous - no names, no email addresses, no phone numbers - just general preferences inferred from the types of sites people visit. DNT is not defined yet, but I suggest that a lot of your favourite websites are supported or helped by this data. Even slashdot has advertising these days. Slashdotters have a choice by nature of knowing how things work, but there's also some pretty decent advertising industry programs aimed at giving information and choice to consumers. Blanket DNT could seriously destroy businesses at-scale. I'm really worried about this move.

  11. MS and facebook by alen · · Score: 2

    MS is a major investor in facebook
    DNT might be on but if you like every other website than facebook will be getting a lot of data that google won't be

  12. Google will find a way to break it by recoiledsnake · · Score: 4, Informative

    They hacked Safari's privacy measures previously.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/17/google-tricked-apples-saf_n_1284551.html

    They also ignored IE's p3p setting.

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2012/02/20/google-bypassing-user-privacy-settings.aspx

    Expect Google fanboys/employees to slag MS for protecting the users' privacy in the comments.

    --
    This space for rent.
  13. Yep, MS is derailing the whole process. by pavon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah, both the FTC guidelines and the current W3C DNT draft both state that users should opt-out of tracking, not opt-in. Furthermore, the advertizing industry groups like that have had the most successful with self-regulation efforts have flat-out said that while they will respect the user's chose to opt-out, they will ignore any system that opts users out automatically.

    Microsoft's decision here is completely counter productive. At best, it means that sites will add code to ignore theDNT header if the UA is IE. At worst it will derail the entire process.

    1. Re:Yep, MS is derailing the whole process. by pavon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You are completely missing the point. Compliance with the DNT is voluntary. That is a fact, not my opinion of how things should be. It is a polite request not to be tracked, no more no less. Several large advertizing industry groups have agreed to respect this request, and things have been progressing nicely along those lines. MS actions are basically a big "fuck you" to groups who have previously been cooperative.

      Taking an antagonistic approach to solving a problem only works you have something to back your actions up. If there were laws or regulations requiring advertisers to follow the DNT, then MS actions would be productive. If MS were instead to implement technical means of blocking tracking, their actions would be productive.

      But implementing a solution that requires the cooperation of others to have any affect whatsoever, and then being a complete asshole to those people is beyond pointless.

  14. The first? really!? by s1d3track3D · · Score: 2

    This step will make Internet Explorer 10 the first web browser with DNT on by default.

    define 'web browser'. I believe none of the following track anything
    Lynx
    Links
    Dillo

    I'm sure there are many others,...