“Five years after advocates came up with an easy way to let you browse the web with just a little privacy, the Do-Not-Track (DNT) system is in tatters,” Zach Miners writes for PCWorld, suggesting “DNT hangs by a thread … Yes, if you turn it on in your browser, it sends a signal in the form of an HTTP header to web companies’ servers. But it probably won’t change what data they collect.” Miners looks at the history of DNT, and quotes the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mike Zaneis as saying, “There is no such thing as Do Not Track right now … It’s a gimmicky marketing term” and the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Peter Eckersley’s comment that “DNT isn’t being honored because advertising companies … just don’t care very much about user privacy, or haven’t been forced to care.” Editor’s Note: The IAPP’s Jedidiah Bracy, CIPP/US, CIPP/E, reports here on DNT in the context of the California AG’s new guidelines on compliance with CalOPPA.
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