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| Do Not Track: an uncertain future |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-10-12 23:06:08 |
| "With the fate of our beloved internet economy allegedly at stake, perhaps it's a good time to examine what Do Not Track is. How did the standard came to be, what does it do, and how does it stand to change online advertising? Is it as innocuous as privacy advocates make it sound, or does it stand to jeopardize the free, ad-supported internet we've all come to rely on?" Do Not Track is inherently flawed because it gives people a false sense of security. Other than perhaps well-known and accountable sites, nobody's going to abide by it anyway. We don't need nonsense like DNT - we need to educate people about that 'private browsing' button. Everybody's already using it for porn anyway; shouldn't be hard to let people know what other things it can be used for. |
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| RE[3]: All I've ever thought about DNT... |
| By Lennie on 2012-10-13 16:36:12 |
|
<q>DNT is a foolish waste of time and resources.</q> Well, that is not really true, because of this: 1. you can not prevent to being tracked, it is technically impossible. For example you currently have user-agent-profiling. Which looks at all the properties of the browser you are running (plugins installed, screensize, browser version, etc.). If you would want to do it, you would need to create browsers with very few features which are all bug-for-bug-compatible (impossible anyway) and use the Tor network all the time. 2. So what you need are laws, to make it illegal to ignore DNT. Some countries already have such laws. 3. what the marketers should understand is that tracking is not required even for the very advanced advertising systems currently in the market: https://air.mozilla.org/tracking-... There is a reason almost all browsers now have support for DNT. |
 - Score: 3 |
| Apache supports online tracking |
| By BallmerKnowsBest on 2012-10-13 17:06:29 |
|
On the plus side, DNT has shown us all what Apache's real priorities are - namely, privacy for end users is much less important than trying to screw over Microsoft. http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/1... In a nutshell: instead of choosing to side with Microsoft & support privacy, Apache has instead thrown their support behind the online advertising industry. That's the FLOSS world for you: supporting freedom, privacy, and other high-minded principles... as long as it doesn't conflict with their jihad against Microsoft. |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE[4]: All I've ever thought about DNT... |
| By WorknMan on 2012-10-14 00:08:01 |
|
> 2. So what you need are laws, to make it illegal to ignore DNT. Some countries already have such laws. Right, just like there are laws to try and prevent people from sharing copyrighted material. And we see how well that has worked out. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[3]: I had to stop reading after this bit |
| By bassbeast on 2012-10-14 04:52:56 |
|
Well I can tell you of at least ONE way they do it, and that is by using hacked PCs like a VPN connection to route their robodialers through as I had that happen to a former customer a few months back. As for TFA nobody is talking about the rotting elephant in the room which is besides just being nosy and creepy their targeted ads DO NOT WORK as it seems to be infected with a case of the "OMG we're too late!" syndrome. Case in point just to have a fair and honest opinion when this first came up I decided to load a browser, in this case Pale Moon, which I would use instead of my Comodo Dragon when searching for parts at my shop with NO adblocking of ANY kind, just to see if the ads became really and truly targeted. What did I find? they sure did...AFTER I had already bought the thing and didn't want it. I bought my netbook a year and change ago and haven't looked at netbooks since, I've been looking at SSDs pretty much constantly this past month. SSD reviews, benchmarks, flyers, you name it. so what do i get ads for? netbooks and ultrabooks, nothing but netbooks and ultrabooks. So I'm sorry but not only is it sick and creepy and pervy to think some weirdo ad group is following my every move they can't even do anything useful with the fricking data! What is sad is the plain old fashioned ad emails I get from Tiger, NewEgg, and Amazon, royally stomp without them following me around like a stalker. All their emails do is "hey you bought this, people that bought this also often buy that, would you like to buy that? We have it on sale?" and wouldn't ya know it, I've actually bought the that that is on sale! Why yes I would like a CPU cooler that is designed to go with my 6 core and is on sale and had great reviews, thanks Tiger! Why yes I would like another pack of blank DVDs when its 30% off, thanks Amazon! Why sure Newegg, how could I resist that flash drive that's tiny and fits my keyring for only $9, thanks a bunch! The old way worked just fine, this new way is pervy and sucks, so now its blocked with good old ABP and third site cookies cleared on exit. I don't care if you need to make money, heck i'll be happy to buy, just don't go pervy stalker on me. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[5]: All I've ever thought about DNT... |
| By Lennie on 2012-10-14 11:07:50 |
| Really what alternative is there ? |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[6]: All I've ever thought about DNT... |
| By WorknMan on 2012-10-14 17:27:52 |
|
> Really what alternative is there ? There is no alternative. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[7]: All I've ever thought about DNT... |
| By Lennie on 2012-10-14 19:04:49 |
|
You also have to remember that companies don't usually break the copyright laws. It might happen that movies and music gets copied with p2p but it isn't usually the companies. And tracking obviously applies to businesses. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE[7]: All I've ever thought about DNT... |
| By quackalist on 2012-10-15 00:44:37 |
| Oh no, can I just have the implant now so I can be told what to think and buy. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[5]: All I've ever thought about DNT... |
| By lucas_maximus on 2012-10-15 11:39:53 |
| But a company has a registered Address in the countries that they operate in, which means that if it is mandatory to comply they will suffer penalties for not doing so. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Apache supports online tracking |
| By laffer1 on 2012-10-15 18:46:48 |
|
The problem is that both Microsoft and Apache screwed up. Microsoft should ask users outright if they want to turn on DNT the first time IE is started on a user profile. Making the option easy to get to is a good thing. Microsoft ignored the standard. Microsoft had three possible motives for enabling DNT by default. 1. User privacy 2. Trying to kill DNT out of the gate 3. To screw google over. Google makes money on advertising after all. Apache shouldn't block the header outright because some users might want it on. They're screwing over the users who care about privacy. Their only choice is to switch to another browser, but apache httpd doesn't tell the user they're ignoring DNT. This will require user training. Apache ignored the standard. Both sides are wrong. |
| - Score: 1 |
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