Topic: Microsoft get's one right.

[Sirgod]

Don't shoot the messenger here Nem.

http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/web-browsers/298596-microsoft-turns-on-do-not-track-by-default-in-ie10

The coming version of Internet Explorer will have the "Do Not Track" feature enabled by default, Microsoft said Thursday. Online advertisers, predictably, are not happy with this decision.

Microsoft plans to have Do Not Track on by default in IE10, which means as users upgrade to the latest version of the browser, they will automatically be opted out of online tracking. In the current version of Internet Explorer (9), do not track is an option that users have to manually turn on to inform websites they do not want to be tracked. All other major browsers, including Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome, and Apple's Safari, follow the same process.

"We believe that consumers should have more control over how information about their online behavior is tracked, shared and used," Brendan Lynch, Microsoft's chief privacy officer, wrote on the Microsoft on the Issues blog. IE10 is expected to be released to the general public this fall.

While tracking is valuable for consumers as it allows personalized experience and relevant ads, Lynch said it should be a "conscious choice to share information."

Advertisers Not Happy
Do Not Track is a still-evolving concept among browser makers, privacy groups, and the advertising industry. But in its simplest form, Do Not Track would notify Websites that the user doesn't want to be tracked while accessing the site. Nothing at this time requires advertisers and websites to actually respect user preference, but the industry had committed earlier this year to honor the setting.

The Digital Advertising Alliance, a coalition of advertisers, told the Wall Street Journal the industry had agreed to honor "do not track" earlier this year so long as it remained turned off by default on browsers. The industry supports "consumer choice, not a choice made by one browser or technology vendor," Stu Ingis, general counsel of the DAA, told the Journal.

Mozilla, the first vendor to add DNT capability to its browser, said users needed to make a conscious choice. While Mozilla applauded Microsoft for "putting its full weight behind DNT," it cautioned against the trap of making decisions on the behalf of the user.

"It’s important that the signal represents a choice made by the person behind the keyboard and not the software maker, because ultimately it’s not the browser being tracked, it’s the user," Alex Fowler, global privacy and public policy lead for Mozilla, wrote on the company blog.

Privacy By Default
Earlier this year, privacy activist Christopher Soghoian railed against major vendors for not enabling security and privacy features by default in their Web browsers . Many users don't want to be tracked but are stymied by the maze of menu options or don't even know they have the option to express their preference, he said. He suggested that users are better served if companies turn on privacy settings, and allow users who don't mind being tracked to opt-in manually.

Soghoian noted at the time that Microsoft had gone down this road before. An earlier version of Internet Explorer originally had an option that would allow users to easily set all privacy settings at once. However, Microsoft dropped the option when advertising companies complained.

Here is to hoping Microsoft doesn't back down again with IE10.

“While some people will say that this change is too much and others that it is not enough, we think it is progress and that consumers will favor products designed with their privacy in mind over products that are designed primarily to gather their data,” Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president overseeing Internet Explorer, wrote on the IEblog.

While Do Not Track is currently optional, there is a lot of interest in the standard, as all the browsers now have the option to enable it, and Twitter recently announced it will respect user preference. Ad companies are supposed to start honoring DNT requests by the end of 2012, but at the moment, the industry had just agreed to not use the information they collect about users, while the Federal Trade Commission wants them to stop collecting the information in the first place.----------

I like that it will be on by default. I've always gone out of my way to opt out of anything that tracks my PC, or what I am viewing.

Stephen

[Brush Wolf]

Ok, what did the aliens do with the real Microsoft?

[Sirgod]

Good question! I wonder just how much revenue is made by Microsoft through ads.

Stephen

[Javora]

I wonder what versions of Windows will be able to use IE 10 ?  This could be for Win 8 only.

[Brush Wolf]

9 is Vista/7 only. 10 is supposed to be W7 and later.

[Nemesis]

They do on occasion do the right thing. 

[Nemesis]

Apparently I misjudged Microsoft.

Link to full article

    Surprisingly, DNT has the opposite of its intended effect: Making DNT a default on IE10 means that most users will send the no-track signal to advertisers. But because DNT is the default chosen by Microsoft -- and not the individual user -- the entire online ad industry has previously pledged to ignore the signal.

Thus, although it was already guaranteed that users of IE10 would be tracked by advertisers even with DNT on, making DNT harder to turn off now doubly ensures that IE10 users are more likely to be targeted by advertisers than users of any other browser.

So by enabling this by default they signal that IE users WANT to be tracked.  No way to "opt out".  Way to go Microsoft.     Doesn't affect me as with the conversion of my netbook to Linux I no longer browse from Windows and haven't used IE except on work machines in many (since Win98SE) years.