Do Not Track Is Finally Coming, but not as Originally Planned
The long-awaited Do Not Track system is coming soon, but it’s a shell of its former self.
It seems like ages since former Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Liebowitz stunned the digital ad industry in December 2010 by calling for a universal Do-Not-Track system. Since then, privacy and tech wonks at the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) — the global organization that took the helm in developing the would-be technology — have slogged through a tedious process to devise a standardized system that would alert users to online tracking and allow them to opt out from it.
Meanwhile, the industry trade coalition Digital Advertising Alliance pushed its own self-regulatory opt-out tool into ubiquity. The DAA’s system allowing people to opt out — not always from tracking, but from ad targeting — is represented by the triangular blue icon seen in countless display ads across the web. Clicking the icon takes people to more information about the companies tracking them and lets them opt out from receiving targeted ads.
