Comments on: Advertising lobbying group criticizes Microsoft for IE 10 Do Not Track feature

By: Ian Clarke

Ian Clarke — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:14:00 +0000

Microsoft are idiots. Respecting “Do Not Track” is entirely voluntary on the part of advertisers. Advertisers will only respect “Do Not Track” if it is opt-in, which is why the “Do Not Track” standard requires that it be opt-in. By making it opt-out instead, Microsoft has virtually guaranteed that advertisers won’t respect it, at least for IE10 users.

So, rather than striking a blow for privacy, Microsoft has effectively killed “Do Not Track”, at least for users of their web browser.

By: JustaTester

JustaTester — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:22:00 +0000

That’s a good point, although there have been a few rare instances where the government did regulate things while leaving themselves loopholes (namely the Do Not Call registry). I guess it will ultimately depend on how many dollars the advertising groups give to our “representatives” and how much anger the public can convey to them. The realist in me says “advertisers will buy the laws they want and we’re just screwed”, but the stupidly optimistic me hopes that won’t be the case.

By: jhdale

jhdale — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:42:00 +0000

That’s a very optimistic view. Looking at the trends in surveillance, in airport security scanning, in other forms of tracking like automated license plate recognition, in regulation of other industries that do lots of lobbying (e.g. financial industry), etc… do you really feel government is inclined to interfere with business interests in favor of privacy protection? I have not seen much evidence of that. Much as I might like to see you proven correct.

By: JustaTester

JustaTester — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:37:00 +0000

I find it mildly amusing that the advertisers seem to think they can comply or not as they see fit, and that the government won’t, at some point, step in and legislate tracking.

By: jhdale

jhdale — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:21:00 +0000

It’s not going to hurt advertisers at all. What it will do is hurt the Do Not Track feature. Advertisers will simply not honor it. Compliance was always voluntary.

This is Microsoft’s way of making everyone happy. They pretend to protect consumers, while undercutting Do Not Track so severely that they actually destroy it and allow advertisers to continue to do what they want.

But perhaps that’s for the best. Voluntary compliance with Do Not Track was poorly thought out from the beginning.