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A universal do-not-track feature has been advocated by privacy groups after being introduced by the Federal Trade Commission in 2010. But the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C) – composed of software companies, academics, privacy groups, and others who determine international Web-browsing standards – has long struggled to develop a unified approach for the feature.
The somewhat-arcane debate over Internet tracking has mostly simmered quietly, but now some lawmakers are arguing that a working group the consortium set up to develop the standard has become overly influenced by tech industry concerns, putting those interests ahead of protecting consumers from the possibility of privacy invasion. The group is currently chaired by representatives from Adobe and Intel.
"Unfortunately, the group's composition no longer reflects the broad range of interests and perspectives needed to develop a strong privacy standard," Sen. Edward Markey (D) of Massachusetts, Sen. Al Franken (D) of Minnesota, and Rep. Joe Barton (R) of Texas wrote in a letter on Wednesday to the consortium. "The 'Do Not Track' standard should empower consumers to stop unwanted collection and use of their personal data. At the same time, the standard should not permit certain companies to evade important consumer protections and engage in anticompetitive practices."
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday October 12 2015, @11:27PM
You cannot have your cake and eat it too (unless it's Shroedinger's cake).
Website can demand that users stop blocking ads and Javascript, but they cannot and should not be able to force users to do so.
Likewise, users can demand that websites do not track them, but they cannot and should not be able to force websites to do so.
It is up to the website to decide what (non)content they want to serve and how to serve it, and it is up to the user to decide what content he wants to consume and how to consume it.
Now, the government can require that registered official business websites must respect DNT to adhere to consumer protection laws, but that should by no means apply to all websites in general.
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