Microsoft Reaffirms Default Do-Not-Track For IE10, Windows 8 Express Setup

Billly Gates writes "Microsoft has confirmed that Internet Explorer 10 will have Do-Not-Track settings enabled by default. IE 10 comes with Windows 8, and will go release candidate for Windows 7 very soon, according to Anne Kohn in a comment in IE's blog. During Windows 8 setup, users who choose the 'Express' option will have DNT on by default, while using the 'Custom' option will give them the chance to change the setting, if they want. IE 10 already has a score of 319 in html5test.com, while MS is trying to position IE as a great browser again. Will this pressure other browsers such as Firefox and Opera to do the same?" When Microsoft began talking about this in May, it touched off quite a debate at W3C about whether browsers should have DNT turned on by default or not.

Comments

Re:Wait a minute,

[cheater512]

Wow! A score of 319 is really impressive!

Wait hang on.
* Chrome 22: 442
* Chrome 21: 437
* Opera 12.50: 409
* Firefox 14: 345

Sure its better than IE 9, but a modern browser it is not.
Doesn't even come close to stable Firefox.

Re:boo!

[TheRaven64]

It won't screw Google over. The most relevant legislation with regard to DNT is the EU directive which says you must not track a user if they express a desire not to be tracked. However, if the header is sent by default, then Google can convincingly argue that the user has not expressed this desire. If, however, it is off by default, then this argument would be nonsense because the user must have explicitly enabled it.

I would love to see it as a setting with no default and a prompt when you install the browser, so that every user must make a conscious decision to either be tracked or not be tracked.