Microsoft Confirms Its Future Browsers Will Not Have Do Not Track as Standard

[engine]

This is a turnaround from its previous stance, and users that want DNT can change the setting.

As industry standards evolve, how we implement those standards evolve as well. So to reflect the current requirements of the privacy standard for tracking preferences, Microsoft is changing how Do Not Track (DNT) is implemented in future versions of our browsers: We will no longer enable it as the default state in Windows Express Settings.Microsoft Confirms Its Future Browsers Will Not Have Do Not Track as Standard [blogs.microsoft.com]

Put simply, we are updating our approach to DNT to eliminate any misunderstanding about whether our chosen implementation will comply with the W3C standard. Without this change, websites that receive a DNT signal from the new browsers could argue that it doesn’t reflect the users’ preference, and therefore, choose not to honor it.

As a result, DNT will not be the default state in Windows Express Settings moving forward, but we will provide customers with clear information on how to turn this feature on in the browser settings should they wish to do so. This change will apply when customers set up a new PC for the first time, as well as when they upgrade from a previous version of Windows or Internet Explorer.

[bill]

The W3C did everything it could to make sure they protected the advertiser's rights in rewording the standard didn't they? They left Microsoft little choice.

Does this mean that other privacy-focused browsers will not be in compliance if they default to DNT?

[JAB Creations]

Microsoft? Privacy? Anyone remember Skype as spyware against torrent users? How about patent Publication number US20120278904 A1 [google.com]? There is no corporation as fickle as Microsoft and all you have to do is look at how much they change the crap out of Windows just for a baseline.

John

[mcneely]

As if anyone really knows or cares about privacy 'till it's too late.

90% of end users just plug the thing in and go ... where is privacy such a big deal to the likes of these?

Yet here we are, Microsoft and others like them, playing to the tune of which direction the money blows in from. The Internet, just from it's basic usage has shown, consistently, #1) People only care about privacy inasmuch as the time it takes to sit through a bunch of policy doublespeak from some corporation that tries to determine overall user mindset, #2) The average user wont actually take the time to even read, or even configure their utility - They just blindly click "Accept" when prompted, and move along their merry way.

The Internet is a boon for advertisers in this regard - They bank on the fact that people don't care and Microsoft, by this move, shows this to be true.

People don't care, so why bother even trying to protect anyone when there's all this money to be made.

[EditorialGuy]

So who's the villain here? The W3C or Microsoft?

It would appear that the W3C is responsible, and Microsoft is just a happy beneficiary.

[bill]

Well, first we had the announcement that IE9 will have a "no tracking" feature [webmasterworld.com] that riled up the ad people. Then Microsoft sticks to default Do Not Track settings in IE 10 [webmasterworld.com]. Shortly therafter, the DNT standard was made largely irrelevant when the Apache Web Server decided to ignore the IE10 Do-Not-Track setting [webmasterworld.com].