Chrome Extension: Keep My Opt-Outs

opt out permanently from ad tracking cookies

[bill]

Keep your opt-outs [googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com]

Today we're making available Keep My Opt-Outs, which enables you to opt out permanently from ad tracking cookies. It's available as an extension for download in Chrome.

Why have we developed this feature?

Recently, the Federal Trade Commission and others have expressed interest in a "Do Not Track" mechanism that could offer users a simple way to opt out of personalized advertising. Advertising companies that are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) already let you opt out of tracking for the purposes of personalizing advertisements, and many online advertisers and trade associations have also joined a major self-regulatory effort to enforce a uniform privacy icon for ads, as well as opt-out guidelines.

[edited by: tedster at 1:37 am (utc) on Jan 26, 2011]
[edit reason] fix character code problems [/edit]

[iThink]

Bad news for those who depend on adsense for living as well as for affiliates?

[zeus]

Sorry I dont believe the story's when Google say they do something for the privacy, be cause every time you find out that something is still wrong. It will take a long time for me to believe anything they say regarding privacy, as "ha" the time they said ups did we collect stuff from computers when we where mapping the world, " ohh we did not know" but a patent was made.

[henry0]

As per main stream news, it will be pretty much a worthless effect as is supposed to be a one way deal.
If what is reported is correct you may opt out but the end party is not forced to let you go and in case of money making why will they!

[vordmeister]

Blocking third party cookies is an effective way to opt out of the advertiser tracking. Firefox has that as an option in privacy options.

Seems a little more straightforward than something Google stick up to pacify regulators.

[incrediBILL]

Bad news for those who depend on adsense for living as well as for affiliates?

Not really, people have been blocking cookies for years.

Nothing new here.

[kazakh]

Bad news!

[yaix2]

Bad news for those who depend on adsense for living as well as for affiliates?

On the contrary. People will see again ads that are related to my content, rather than the visitor's browsing history. Good thing.

But I don't think that many people will actually use this anyway. People only do what the mass media tells them to, and the targeting of news site ads usually depend a lot on browsing history.

[frontpage]

Yesterday, I also noticed a news story that Firefox was going to implement similar system.

Only problem? You guessed it...

Firefox's "Do Not Track" feature has a gaping loophole. For the tool to work, ad tracking companies essentially must opt-in to the system, and agree not to monitor web-surfing habits of users who have chosen to opt-out.

Thus far, according to the Wall Street Journal, no companies have openly agreed to participate in Firefox's "Do Not Track" program, though Mozilla is urging advertisers to "honor people's choices."

[skibum]

So how would this affect Google Analytics? Would it block ad cookies but still let analytics work? I can't imagine Google would develop something that would block their own tracking unless there is some other way around it or they have enough data to convince themselves that nobody will implement it.

Would be nice if it would block BT cookies but still let advertisers track the click to sale performance of their ads.

[tangor]

Would be nice if it would block BT cookies but still let advertisers track the click to sale performance of their ads.

Kind of defeats the purpose of "don't track"... But I wouldn't put it past Google, who never lets ANY DATA get away...

[graeme_p]

Two good things about this:

1) It handles FLash cookies as well as browser ones
2) Its open source, so if there is anything sneaky in it, someone can audit the code and find out.