HTTP header field proposed in 2009
Do Not Track
(
DNT
) is a formerly official HTTP header field, designed to allow internet users to opt-out of tracking by websites?which includes the collection of data regarding a 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.
The Do Not Track header was originally proposed in 2009 by researchers Christopher Soghoian, Sid Stamm, and Dan Kaminsky. Mozilla Firefox became the first browser to implement the feature.
In 2020, a coalition of US-based internet companies announced the
Global Privacy Control
header that spiritually succeeds Do Not Track header. The creators hope that this new header will meet the definition of "user-enabled global privacy controls" defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In this case, the new header would be automatically strengthened by existing laws and companies would be required to honor it.
Operation
[
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]
The DNT header accepts three values:
1
in case the user does not want to be tracked
(opt-out)
,
0
in case the user consents to be tracked
(opt-in)
, or
null
(no header sent) if the user has not expressed a preference. The default behavior required by the standard is not to send the header unless the user enables the setting via their browser or their choice is implied by the use of that specific browser.
[1]
History
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In 2007, several consumer advocacy groups asked the U.S.
Federal Trade Commission
to create a Do Not Track list for online advertising. The proposal would have required that online advertisers submit their information to the FTC, which would compile a machine-readable list of the domain names used by those companies to place cookies or otherwise track consumers.
[2]
In July 2009, researchers Christopher Soghoian and Sid Stamm implemented support for the Do Not Track header in the Firefox web browser via a prototype add-on. Stamm was, at the time, a privacy engineer at Mozilla, while Soghoian soon afterward started working at the FTC.
[3]
One year later, during a U.S. Senate privacy hearing, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz told the Senate Commerce Committee that the commission was exploring the idea of proposing a "do-not-track" list.
[4]
In December 2010, the FTC issued a privacy report that called for a "do-not-track" system that would enable people to avoid having their actions being monitored online.
[5]
One week later, Microsoft announced that its next browser would include support for Tracking Protection Lists that block tracking of consumers using blacklists supplied by third parties.
[6]
In January 2011, Mozilla announced that its Firefox browser would soon provide a Do Not Track solution, via a browser header.
[7]
Microsoft's
Internet Explorer 9
,
[8]
Apple's Safari,
[9]
Opera
[10]
and Google Chrome
[11]
all later added support for the header approach.
In August 2015 a coalition of privacy groups led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation using W3C's Tracking Preference Expression (DNT) standard proposed that "Do not track" be the goal for advocates to demand of businesses.
[12]
In January 2019, the W3C Tracking Protection Working Group was disbanded, citing "insufficient deployment of these extensions" and lack of "indications of planned support among user agents, third parties, and the ecosystem at large".
[13]
[14]
Beginning the following month, Apple removed DNT support from Safari, citing that it could be used as a "
fingerprinting
variable" for tracking.
[15]
Internet Explorer 10 default setting controversy
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When using the "Express" settings upon installation, a Do Not Track option is enabled by default for
Internet Explorer 10
and
Windows 8
.
[16]
Microsoft faced criticism for its decision to enable Do Not Track by default
[17]
from advertising companies, who say that use of the Do Not Track header should be a choice made by the user and must not be automatically enabled. The companies also said that this decision would violate the
Digital Advertising Alliance
's agreement with the U.S. government to honor a Do Not Track system, because the coalition said it would only honor such a system if it were not enabled by default by web browsers.
[18]
A Microsoft spokesperson defended its decision however, stating that users would prefer a web browser that automatically respected their privacy.
[19]
On September 7, 2012,
Roy Fielding
, an author of the Do Not Track standard,
committed
a patch to the source code of the
Apache HTTP Server
, which would make the server explicitly ignore any use of the Do Not Track header by users of Internet Explorer 10. Fielding wrote that Microsoft's decision "deliberately violates" the Do Not Track specification because it "does not protect anyone's privacy unless the recipients believe it was set by a real human being, with a real preference for privacy over personalization". The Do Not Track specification did not explicitly mandate that the use of Do Not Track actually be a choice until after the feature was implemented in Internet Explorer 10.
[20]
According to Fielding, Microsoft knew its Do Not Track signals would be ignored, and that its goal was to effectively give an illusion of privacy while still catering to their own interests.
[21]
On October 9, 2012, Fielding's patch was
commented out
, restoring the previous behavior.
[22]
[23]
On April 3, 2015, Microsoft announced that starting with
Windows 10
, it would comply with the specification and no longer automatically enable Do Not Track as part of the operating system's "Express" default settings, but that the company will "provide customers with clear information on how to turn this feature on in the browser settings should they wish to do so".
[24]
Adoption
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Very few advertising companies actually supported DNT, due to a lack of regulatory or voluntary requirements for its use,
[25]
and unclear standards over how websites should respond to the header. Websites that honor DNT requests include
Medium
and
Pinterest
.
[26]
Despite offering the option in its Chrome web browser,
Google
did not implement support for DNT on its websites, and directed users to its online privacy settings and opt-outs for interest-based advertising instead.
[27]
The
Digital Advertising Alliance
,
Council of Better Business Bureaus
and the
Direct Marketing Association
does not require its members to honor DNT signals.
[28]
Use of
ad blocking
software to block web trackers and advertising has become increasingly common (with users citing both privacy concerns and performance impact as justification), while Apple and Mozilla began to add privacy enhancements (such as "tracking protection") to their browsers, that are designed to reduce undue cross-site tracking. In addition, laws such as the European Union's
General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) have imposed restrictions on how companies are to store and process personal information.
[27]
[29]
Princeton University
associate professor of computer science
Jonathan Mayer
, who was a member of the W3C's working group for DNT, argued that the concept is a "failed experiment".
[27]
Global Privacy Controls
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]
Global Privacy Control
(GPC) is a proposed HTTP header field and DOM property that can be used to inform websites of the user's wish to have their information not be sold or used by ad trackers. GPC was developed in 2020 by privacy technology researchers such as Wesleyan University professor Sebastian Zimmeck and former Chief Technologist of the Federal Trade Commission Ashkan Soltani, as well as a group of privacy-focused companies including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Automattic (owner of Tumblr and WordPress), and more.
The signal has been implemented by DuckDuckGo's privacy extension,
The New York Times
, and privacy browser Brave and is supported by Firefox creator, Mozilla as well as former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. GPC is a spiritual successor to the Do Not Track header that was created in 2009 but didn't find widespread success due to the lack of legislation that would require companies to legally respect the Do Not Track header.
GPC is a valid do-not-sell-my-personal-information signal according to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which stipulates that websites are legally required to respect a signal sent by users who want to opt-out of having their personal data sold. In July 2021, the California Attorney General clarified through an FAQ that under law, the Global Privacy Control signal must be honored.
On August 24, 2022, the California Attorney General announced
Sephora
paid a $1.2-million settlement for allegedly failing to process opt-out requests via a user-enabled global privacy control signal.
See also
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References
[
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]
- ^
"Do Not Track- Universal Web Tracking Opt-Out"
. Retrieved
April 11,
2011
.
- ^
"The History of the Do Not Track Header"
(PDF)
.
Center for Democracy and Technology
. October 31, 2007
. Retrieved
February 22,
2012
.
- ^
Zetter, Kim (August 17, 2009).
"Outspoken Privacy Advocate Joins FTC"
.
Wired News
. Retrieved
November 20,
2009
.
- ^
Corbin, Kenneth (July 28, 2010).
"FTC Mulls Browser-Based Block for Online Ads"
.
Internet News
. Retrieved
November 20,
2009
.
- ^
Angwin, Julia (December 2, 2010).
"FTC Backs Do-Not-Track System for Web"
.
Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
February 22,
2012
.
- ^
Angwin, Julia (December 7, 2010).
"Microsoft to Add 'Tracking Protection' to Web Browser"
.
Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
February 22,
2012
.
- ^
Julia Angwin
(January 21, 2011).
"Web Tool On Firefox To Deter Tracking"
.
Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
February 22,
2012
.
- ^
Angwin, Julia (March 15, 2011).
"Microsoft Adds Do-Not-Track Tool to Browser"
.
Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
February 22,
2012
.
- ^
Nick Wingfield (April 14, 2011).
"Apple Adds Do-Not-Track Tool to New Browser"
.
Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
April 14,
2011
.
- ^
Opera Desktop Team (February 11, 2012).
"Core update with Do Not Track, and mail and theme fixes"
.
Opera blog
. Archived from
the original
on March 10, 2013
. Retrieved
February 10,
2012
.
- ^
"Longer battery life and easier website permissions"
.
Chrome blog
. November 6, 2012
. Retrieved
November 7,
2012
.
- ^
Abel, Jennifer (August 6, 2015).
"Privacy groups offer "Do Not Track" compromise; will online advertisers and publishers accept it?"
.
ConsumerAffairs
. Retrieved
August 10,
2015
.
- ^
"WG closed · w3c/dnt@5d85d6c"
.
GitHub
. Retrieved
February 7,
2019
.
- ^
Hill, Kashmir (February 6, 2019).
"Apple Is Removing 'Do Not Track' From Safari"
.
Gizmodo
. Retrieved
February 7,
2019
.
- ^
"Apple is removing the Do Not Track toggle from Safari, but for a good reason"
.
Macworld
. February 7, 2019
. Retrieved
October 24,
2019
.
- ^
"Internet Explorer 10 Released for Windows 7"
.
PC Magazine
. November 13, 2012
. Retrieved
December 22,
2012
.
- ^
Brendon Lynch (August 7, 2012).
"Do Not Track in the Windows 8 Setup Experience"
.
Microsoft on the issues blog
. Archived from
the original
on August 8, 2012.
- ^
"Microsoft ticks off advertisers with IE10 'Do Not Track' policy"
.
CNET
. June 1, 2012
. Retrieved
September 8,
2012
.
- ^
"Microsoft's "Do Not Track" Move Angers Advertising Industry"
.
Digits
. The Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
September 8,
2012
.
- ^
"Microsoft sticks to its guns, keeps Do Not Track on by default in IE10"
.
Ars Technica
. August 8, 2012
. Retrieved
May 14,
2013
.
- ^
Shankland, Stephen (September 7, 2012).
"Apache Web software overrides IE10 do-not-track setting"
.
CNET
. Retrieved
April 13,
2024
.
- ^
"Apache Won't Override Do-Not-Track Headers"
. MediaPost Communications. October 9, 2012
. Retrieved
December 22,
2012
.
- ^
"Keep this in, but commented out: also provide a little · apache/httpd@3dd6fb6"
.
GitHub
. Retrieved
July 4,
2017
.
- ^
"Microsoft rolls back commitment to Do Not Track"
.
Computerworld
. IDG. April 3, 2015
. Retrieved
April 3,
2015
.
- ^
"Here's The Gaping Flaw in Microsoft's 'Do Not Track' System For IE10"
.
Business Insider
. Retrieved
September 8,
2012
.
- ^
Bacchus, Arif (October 15, 2018).
"Millions of People Use 'Do Not Track' Tool Which Does Nothing"
.
Digital Trends
. Designtechnica Corporation
. Retrieved
November 1,
2019
.
- ^
a
b
c
"
'Do Not Track' Privacy Tool Doesn't Do Anything"
.
Gizmodo
. October 15, 2018
. Retrieved
October 24,
2019
.
- ^
"Digital Advertising Alliance Gives Guidance to Marketers for Microsoft IE10 'DO NOT TRACK' Default Setting"
. Retrieved
October 10,
2012
.
- ^
Fleishman, Glenn (March 17, 2019).
"How the tragic death of Do Not Track ruined the web for everyone"
.
Fast Company
. Retrieved
October 24,
2019
.