IE 10′s "Do-Not-Track" default dies quick death

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/ie-10s-do-not-track-default-dies-quick-death/

by tedsuo • 14 years ago

36 21 14 years ago

arstechnica.com

synctext• 14 years ago

Very strange story spin:

Microsoft tries to do the right thing, then Ars+DoNotTrack working group makes them look like the bad guys....

kirbysayshi• 14 years ago

This was my exact thought as well. Just because the ad industry doesn't want this to happen, doesn't mean the apps implementing it should get slammed. IE has done great strides in the past few years.

pbiggar6• 14 years ago

But by turning it on by default, they automatically kill it. Not a good thing! (Consider this, Mozilla created it, and they are against turning it on by default. There's a signal there).

mbrubeck• 14 years ago

The problem is that DNT is not a technical measure like pop-up blocking, where enabling it by default is guaranteed to have an effect. Instead, it's a voluntary measure whose implementation depends mainly on the advertising networks rather than the browser vendors.

So if we want DNT to have any effect, it must be something tracking companies will consider a meaningful signal of user preference. The risk in enabling it by default (for a browser that will eventually be used by 20-30% of the web) is that tracking companies would increasingly ignore it -- even the ones who have pledged support for DNT in its current form as implemented by Firefox/Opera/Safari.

OpieCunningham6• 14 years ago

Well then. There should be a law.

paulgb• 14 years ago

It seems like the right thing, but it's not. By ignoring an important part of the spec, they put advertiser adoption of DNT in jeopardy. And it's not like it's for benevolent reasons; imagine how much they'd like Google to lose one of its core strengths.

NaturalDoc• 14 years ago

I couldnt agree more. It is not often that I say Microsoft tried to do the right thing, but here they did! Users are customers and customers should have the right to OPT-IN to advertising tracking. However, some idiot in his/her infinite wisdom is now forcing us to OPT-OUT.

I rarely applaud MS, but IMO? BRAVO MS!!!

pbiggar6• 14 years ago

How could OPT-IN have pragmatically worked?

pkamb• 14 years ago

> Which means that tech and ad companies who say they comply with Do Not Track could simply ignore the flag set by IE 10 and track those who use that browser, which means Microsoft has no choice but to change the setting.

That's a reach. How would the ad companies know if the user manually turned it on or off? Ars is claiming they'll completely ignore any DNT from IE?

tedsuo• 14 years ago

Yes, I believe that is what they are saying.

zoowar• 14 years ago

I just installed Firefox on Fedora 17 and found, to my surprise, that Do-No-Track was disabled by default.

stalled• 14 years ago

For posterity, HN discussion on an earlier submission (same story, just linked directly to Wired): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4076910

IE 10′s "Do-Not-Track" default dies quick death

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