Do Not Track: privacy activists face off with the online ad industry – The Verge

Starting today, Yahoo will not honor Do Not Track settings

2014-05-01T16:03:47-04:00

Starting today, anyone visiting Yahoo will be tracked by default, regardless of whether they've enabled the Do Not Track setting on their browser. It's a bold stance by the company, which described the shift as a personalized experience by default, and a serious blow for the Do Not Track standard, which has suffered major setbacks in recent years. Users can still manage their privacy settings through the Yahoo Privacy settings, but they'll have to do so individually, and Yahoo sites won't be responding to any automated anti-ad-tracking signals like DNT. "We fundamentally believe the best web is a personalized one," the privacy team said in a …

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Microsoft said to work on technology to replace cookies, track across Windows, Bing, and Xbox

2013-10-10T11:33:46-04:00

Windows 8 logo stock

The third-party cookies used by advertisers and their agencies to track web browsing activity are under attack. Browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer try to block the years-old technology with "Do Not Track," and now internet behemoths are looking to replace cookies with their own tracking technologies. The newest entrant, according to Ad Age, is Microsoft, which sources say is working on a technology that could track users across Windows computers, Bing, Internet Explorer, Windows Phone devices, and Xbox consoles in order to serve highly targeted ads.

Microsoft said in a statement to the website that "We agree that going beyond the c …

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Google reportedly building in-house ad-tracking tool called ‘AdID’

2013-09-17T15:18:52-04:00

Google New York Chelsea Office (STOCK)

Google is reportedly developing its own system of tracking our activity online. According to a report from USA Today, Google is building an identification method for advertisers, called AdID, that would replace third-party HTTP cookies. An unnamed source tells the newspaper that AdID data would be shared with advertisers and online ad-sales networks that agree to a Google-defined set of guidelines and privacy controls.

So far, Google hasn't spoken publicly about AdID in particular, but the company tells The Verge in an emailed statement that it's working on improving online Google built, Google controlled tracking systems. "We believe that t …

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Do Not Track’s future in doubt as major ad group withdraws from talks

2013-09-17T14:08:24-04:00

firefox do not track stock 1020

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has spent nearly two years trying to standardize and implement Do Not Track - an HTTP header that tells advertisers and other third parties not to follow you around the internet - and the many delays and roadblocks that have cropped up since are starting to make it look like its efforts will be futile. According to The Hill, a major group representing the online advertising industry has pulled its support and believes that it's essentially impossible for the W3C to carry out its plan to create a Do Not Track Standard. The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) said it was withdrawing from the W3C's disucssions …

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Mozilla delays blocking advertisers’ cookies in Firefox

2013-05-17T17:38:33-04:00

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After announcing that it would soon start blocking cookies from third-party advertisers by default in Firefox, Mozilla has walked back on its plans while it continues to test the system. In a blog post, Mozilla's Brendan Eich said that the patch needed more testing and data in order to refine it for release. "The idea is that if you have not visited a site (including the one to which you are navigating currently) and it wants to put a cookie on your computer, the site is likely not one you have heard of or have any relationship with," he said. "But this is only likely, not always true."

Eich cited false positives - cookies from a site you v …

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Do Not Track bill reintroduced: ‘They have dragged their feet long enough,’ says senator

2013-02-28T20:56:11-05:00

Do Not Track Internet Explorer 10

Do Not Track is back in the spotlight today as senators Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) reintroduced a bill that would let people opt out of having their online activity tracked by advertisers. Originally introduced in 2011, the Do Not Track Online Act was envisioned as an online equivalent to the nationwide Do Not Call list, but talks have broken down between privacy activists and the ad industry, and nearly two years since its initial proposal, there is still no consensus about how to move forward.

Advertisers have been reluctant to cede any major ground

The technical implementation of Do Not Track uses an HTTP h …

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As online advertising grows, ad buyers pay for the consumer, not the outlet

2012-11-16T16:32:53-05:00

Do Not Track Internet Explorer 10

As advertising has moved online, the way companies buy space for it has also changed. The New York Times has outlined the rise of "programmatic buying," an automated ad system in which tracking consumers has become as important as making sure the ad matches the site's tone. Ad space buyers look not for certain kinds of places, but certain kinds of viewers, often following them across multiple sites. "Accessing media is a commodity now," says digital advertising executive Sheldon Gilbert. While Do Not Track and other privacy efforts promise to take data out of advertisers' hands, the Times indicates that tracking-heavy, algorithm-based buying …

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Chrome updated with Do Not Track protocol support, but leaves it turned off by default

2012-11-06T16:20:04-05:00

Chrome Logo

Google just released the latest stable version of Chrome, which finally includes support for the somewhat-controversial Do Not Track protocol. This makes Google the last major browser developer to support it, as Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, and even Opera enabled it in their browsers some time ago. Google's chosen to have the option turned off by default, the opposite of Microsoft's default behavior in Internet Explorer 10. There's some question as to how effective Do Not Track will be - a number of companies, including internet giant Yahoo, have said they will not recognize Microsoft's DNT requests from IE 10, so it's possible Chrome will be …

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Yahoo ‘will not recognize’ Internet Explorer 10’s default Do Not Track setting

2012-10-26T17:39:45-04:00

Yahoo billboard

Microsoft was warned that its decision to enable Do Not Track (DNT) by default in Windows 8's Internet Explorer 10 would encourage web content providers to ignore the request to keep advertisers from following user's movements around the web, and those predictions are becoming very true. Yahoo has just published its thoughts on the matter, and in the blog post says that it "will not recognize IE10's default DNT signal on Yahoo! properties at this time." The company cites that the DNT standard has not been finalized, and that Microsoft's decision "degrades the experience for the majority of users and makes it hard to deliver on our value prop …

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Do Not Track: an uncertain future for the web’s most ambitious privacy initiative

2012-10-12T12:00:20-04:00

Do Not Track Internet Explorer 10

Following months of relative quiet on the subject of Do Not Track - an HTTP header that tells advertisers and other third parties not to follow you around the internet - the controversial browser signal is being thrust back into the limelight. After the W3C's recent face-to-face meeting in Amsterdam, the the Digital Advertising Alliance plainly said that it "does not require companies to honor DNT," effectively saying it intends to stick to its own self-regulatory approach to user privacy. Much of the renewed interest stems from Microsoft's controversial decision to turn Do Not Track on by default in Windows 8's Internet Explorer 10, and Ado …

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