[luckylion]

Wasn't this just microsoft back in the day that enabled it by default, and they were already a small player at that point (Chrome was the leader and even Firefox had more market-share back then iirc).

In other words: "browsers" didn't make it the default, one small browser did.

And so if _any_ browser, whatever tiny percentage they might have of the market, will make this new proposal the default, advertisers can again say "see? totally unreasonable, we won't follow that".

But it being made default by Microsoft was never the problem, ad-companies just didn't care.

[pseudalopex]

Internet Explorer's market share was a little more to a little less than Chrome's in mid 2012. It was the only significant browser to enable Do Not Track by default as far as I know.

Advertisers wouldn't have cared until laws forced them to care. Microsoft enabling it by default ensured there would be no laws.

[luckylion]

You are right, my memory was off by a few years. In 2012 Chrome first overtook IE, in 2014 Safari overtook them, in 2015 they crossed 10% and by the end of 2016 dropped under 5%.

Microsoft's final gift to advertisers before dropping of into obscurity.