Microsoft To Stop Enabling 'Do Not Track' By Default

An anonymous reader writes: The history of the do-not-track setting for web browsers has been rife with debate. It took a long time for web experts to come to anything resembling a consensus on how it should be implemented, and the process isn't over yet. Microsoft took criticism for enabling the do-not-track setting by default in Internet Explorer. While it sounds good in theory, many worried it would just spur websites to completely disregard the setting (and some, like Yahoo, did just that). Now, Microsoft has reversed their stance. The do-not-track setting will not be enabled by default in the company's future browsers. They say, "Put simply, we are updating our approach to DNT to eliminate any misunderstanding about whether our chosen implementation will comply with the W3C standard. ... As a result, DNT will not be the default state in Windows Express Settings moving forward, but we will provide customers with clear information on how to turn this feature on in the browser settings should they wish to do so."

Comments

its up to you

[nimbius]

DNT was always a tongue in cheek sentiment. it was an industries attempt to divert attention from the widely embraced practice of turning users into cattle. the level of transparency through which disregard of the setting was employed only further served to relegate it to yet another pointless feature in an ecosystem of browsers that increasingly dont give two shits about their user

so we've got IE, which is the drooling invalid of browsers for all intents and purposes, telling us its no longer honouring an empty standard as if thats something new the brand has just recently started doing. Chrome, which while offered was never enabled and never honoured by the parent developer, made do not track into just another keeping up with the jones' hedge clipping effort. And finally firefox, which embeds google and bing as default search agents and pushes targeted advertising to the user through its tabs. Firefox is probably the last chance a user has at a truly open browsing experience for what its worth, video chat option not withstanding. what makes it useful is the fact that you can truly take privacy into your own hands.

Use duckduckgo, disable cookies, whitelist known sites, and employ bolt-ons like noscript, adblock, and https everywhere as well as flash cookie deletion plugins to turn the internet back into something recognizeable again. But remember, expecting the industry that makes money off paying internet users through their willful ignorance and by deceptive practices to get its fists out of the cookie jar and show some respect and restraint is like hoping a slaughterhouse starts caring about the color of the kill floor and the ambiance of the stun bolt.