[remarkEon]

I think where the straw man fallacy comes from in what I set up is that it's not the websites themselves that are doing the tracking per se...it's your computer that's letting the company running the website know that this is a unique user. Because tracking in this manner isn't specifically illegal, a terms-and-conditions-may-apply statement probably is what's necessary. My original hypothetical question likely is too simple to survive a challenge. The "77 words of pseudo-legalese" that derefr posited would also help someone like my dad truly understand what's going on in the background and, heck, may even encourage him to research the matter more. Hopefully on a browser set to Do-Not-Track.