A few months ago, we released a white paper on the W3C Consortium’s new “Do Not Track” privacy standard, which allows Internet users to specify which sites they do not want to have tracked when they surf the web. The standard caused quite a stir when it was released, but it did not compare to the outcry we’re seeing currently as the result of Internet Explorer’s decision to make the “Do Not Track” specification a default for all websites in their new release of IE10.
As BtoB Magazine reports, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and The Association of National Advertisers both made statements last week opposing the default setting. As advertisers ourselves, we understand where they’re coming from. Default “Do Not Track” settings mean we’re unable to collect information about IE10 users who haven’t overridden the default. As a result, we lose our ability to accurately target them based on their browsing behavior.
However, we also care about privacy. While we’re not huge fans of Internet Explorer (mostly because of the problems it causes for our web programmers) we can’t help but wonder whether they’re doing the right thing to make the DNT setting a default. After all, most average web users aren’t even aware of how closely their browsing history can be tracked. We’re not sure that defaulting the “Do Not Track” setting to “off” (as most other browsers do) is really the most responsible choice, either. What’s your take?
(Click here to expand)
