In early December, the FTC released a report outlining ways to improve online consumer privacy, which included a recommendation to create a Do-Not-Track system that would allow internet users to opt-out of having their online surfing behavior tracked.  The report quickly gained a lot of attention from legislators and privacy organizations, online advertising industry professionals and the general media.  Within a week, Microsoft had weighed in with the announcement that their upcoming release of Internet Explorer 9 would offer consumers a new “opt-in mechanism (Tracking Protection) to identify and block many forms of undesired advertising.”  An additional feature called “Tracking Protection Lists,” will give internet users control over what third-party site content can track them when they are online.

Google and Mozilla weighed in on the Do-Not-Track discussion this week with separate announcements about new tools each company will launch to enable internet users to more easily opt-out of online tracking for ad-serving purposes.

On Sunday, Mozilla announced that it will be launching a new “do-not-track header” that will automatically notify any website when a user chooses not to be tracked for use with online advertising.  This approach removes the need for ad networks and websites to rely on cookies to identify when a user has opted out of online tracking.  The idea behind this change is that users often delete cookies and could inadvertently remove cookies that identify their op-out status.  Usage of the Mozilla system by websites and advertisers would be entirely voluntary and the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s response to the header based approach was underwhelming.  “It is very simplistic to think that you just put something in a header and people will honor it.  It is an interesting idea that they can offer this header, but if nobody’s reading it and nobody knows what it means, why should we care as an industry?” said IAB general counsel Mike Zaneis.

Google announced a new initiative called Keep My Opt-Outs which allows internet users to opt-out permanently from all ad tracking cookies.  It is already available as a downloadable extension for Google’s Chrome browser.   All companies that participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance’s self regulatory program (which includes the Interactive Advertising Bureau as well has other major industry groups) will work with Google’s opt-out tool.

In the announcement, Google also said the company was working on making the Keep My Opt-Outs feature available for other browsers, as well as making the code available on an open-source basis to outside developers to help them identify bugs and enhance its capabilities.

What this means for online marketers is that Do-Not-Track isn’t an issue that you can just ignore and expect to go away.  If anything it has picked up momentum since December, with three of the biggest browsers already offering or planning to offer enhanced opt-out capabilities in the very near future.

We will continue to provide updates on the various Do-Not-Track initiatives as we learn about them in the weeks and months ahead.

Filed under: Industry News by Tom Wozniak