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by glenjamin
4925 days ago
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Where did do-no-track even come from? If I were to create a browser extension which added a "Do-Not-Charge-Me" header, without input from retailers, would I then be able to get annoyed that I still had to pay for my goods, despite having ticked a little box in the browser settings? |
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Well, the argument from the advertisers is this: they have no idea whether or not people want to be tracked, so they don't know when it is not OK to do so (i.e. they are claiming to be autistic). Maybe some people really do want to be tracked and given advertisements that are more relevant to their interests, according to the advertisers, and so having browsers block tracking systems would hurt those users; also, they like to remind us, invasive advertising funds the web (but I have my doubts about that point). DNT is supposed to give users a way to opt out of invasive advertising that does not involve simply blocking ads; we are supposed to accept this compromise, because otherwise we'll just be in another arms race (which I suspect we will win, given how effective ABP is at blocking ads).
The theory is that the industry can self-regulate, because we are holding the Sword of Damocles over their heads: we already showed them that we can block pop-ups, pop-unders, hover ads, Flash ads, Java ads, and the numerous other things they came up with. We also showed them that we can win an arms race, by making spam filters so effective that the volume of spam actually began to decrease.
Of course, for DNT to work, the number of ABP installations would have to spike whenever the advertisers prove that they are not acting in good faith. Which is what they did when they tried to claim that DNT meant users don't want to see targeted ads, but that it was still OK to collect tracking data. To me, that suggests that DNT is already over and that we need to finish the game by making ABP a standard feature.