Hi Aaron,
On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 04:56:38PM -0500, Aaron Halfaker wrote:
If I'm understanding correctly, Do Not Track is
about tracking cookies that
track activities between websites. Is that right?
That's a really hard question.
Yes and no. There is no standard yet. And people generally have
different understandings of the header, its definition and its
intention, and purpose.
(If you care to read only one of the below items, read the last one
titled “Consumer's confused view”)
* W3C's Tracking Protection Working Group's point of view
W3C's current work in progress “Tracking Preference Expression (DNT)”
document [1] does not limit to “cookies”, or “tracking cookies”. The
document explicitly states that the intention is “general, regardless
of protocols” [2].
Also, the boundary is not between websites, but on an organisational
level. If an entity is first party on SiteA, and SiteB, different
rules^Wrecommendations apply than if the same party were first party
on SiteA, and third party on SiteB.
In general, the Do Not Track header is more geared towards targeted
advertizing than analytics. It's been ridiculed by some to be “Do Not
Target” instead of “Do Not Track”.
And it comes with so many exceptions [3] and vague definitions (or
definitions getting twisted by their use) [4].
* Company's PR point of view:
If you have DNT enabled in your browser settings, we will not
collect the information that enables this feature, so you won’t see
any tailored suggestions. We hope that our support of DNT highlights
its importance as a privacy tool for consumers and creates even more
interest and wider adoption across the web.
https://blog.twitter.com/2012/new-tailored-suggestions-for-you-to-follow-on…
* Company's FUD point of view:
http://whatisdnt.com/
* Company's ignoring point of view
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/yahoo-is-the-latest-c…
* Consumer's confused view
Consumers think that “Do not track” actually means “Do not track”.
As a consumer, you’d think that the meaning of “Do Not Track” is
pretty clear. You’re making a polite request of the web sites and
advertisers: “Don’t collect and store any information about me
without my explicit permission.”
http://www.zdnet.com/why-do-not-track-is-worse-than-a-miserable-failure-700…
Have fun,
Christian
[1]
http://www.w3.org/TR/tracking-dnt/
[2]
http://www.w3.org/TR/tracking-dnt/#other-protocols
[3] Like
Regardless of the tracking preference expressed, data MAY be
collected and used for billing and auditing related to the current
network interaction and concurrent transactions. This may include
counting ad impressions to unique visitors, verifying positioning
and quality of ad impressions and auditing compliance with this and
other standards.
http://www.w3.org/2011/tracking-protection/drafts/tracking-compliance.html#…
[4] Like
Tracking is the collection of data regarding a particular user's
activity across multiple distinct contexts and the retention, use,
or sharing of data derived from that activity outside the context in
which it occurred. A context is a set of resources that are
controlled by the same party or jointly controlled by a set of
parties.
http://www.w3.org/TR/tracking-dnt/#terminology
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