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:
* Company's ignoring point of view
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/yahoo-is-the-latest-co...
* 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-7000...
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#f...
[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