Microsoft decided that it would make "Do Not Track" the default setting in its Internet Explorer 10 browser (on Windows 8), which if honoured would dramatically reduce advertisers' ability to snoops on web users' habits. At the time, it was warned that making the setting default might force some web services to ignore the flag entirely.
The first sign that the predictions were correct came as Apache patched its open source web server software, present on around 60 percent of all websites, to ignore the DNT setting in Internet Explorer 10.
Now. Yahoo has decided that it will ignore the DNT flag in Internet Explorer 10 also. It says that the DNT standard is not finalized yet, and that Microsoft's decision could "degrade the experience for the majority of users and makes it hard to deliver on our value proposition to them."
The web giant stresses that it does support DNT in principle, but believes that the option should be available for users to select themselves, rather than being a default settings - so in other words they want us to be in a position to voluntarily opt out, not opt in.
"We believe that DNT must map to user intent -- not to the intent of one browser creator, plug-in writer, or third-party software service," Yahoo argues.
Written by: James Delahunty @ 28 Oct 2012 17:31
