Advertisers Blast Microsoft Over IE Default Privacy Settings

theodp writes "GeekWire reports that Microsoft is sticking to its decision to implement 'Do-Not-Track' as the default for IE 10, despite drawing the ire of corporate America, the Apache Software Foundation, and the FTC Chairman. Representatives of a veritable Who's Who of Corporate America — e.g., GM, IBM, BofA, Walmart, Merck, Allstate, AT&T, Motorola — signed off on a letter blasting Microsoft for its choice. 'By presenting Do Not Track with a default on,' the alliance argues, 'Microsoft is making the wrong choice for consumers.' The group reminds Microsoft that Apache — whose Platinum Sponsors have branded Microsoft's actions a deliberate abuse of open standards and designed its software to ignore the 'do-not-track' setting if the browser reaching it is IE 10. It also claims that the FTC Chairman, formerly supportive of Microsoft's privacy efforts, now recognizes 'the harm to consumers that Microsoft's decision could create.'"

Comments

Re:Microsoft cares about privacy

[DragonWriter]

Sounds more like a criminal move on Apache's part if it's ignoring what the program is set for.

The DNT flag, per the standard (which Microsoft is on the workgroup responsible for and has not requested a change to the standard) is to be sent to indicate that the user has made a non-default choice to opt-out of tracking. If a browser vendor has announced that their browser will not use it exclusively communicate what it is supposed to communicate, people who have made a choice to react in one way to the information the flag is supposed to communicate are perfectly justified in ignoring it when it is sent by that browser, since in that case it no longer communicates the same information.

DNT isn't a law, its a means of communicate a very specific decision on the part of the user -- and Microsoft has announced that it intends IE10 to lie about that decision.