Internet giants tend to tweak business models

Internet giants tend to tweak business models

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a group that has long championed internet standards, thinks that a simple on/off switch introduces a new problem, which concerns the default setting. If this is to be "off", ad networks say they will collapse; if it is "on", privacy experts argue that industry users are being opted in. The imbroglio involving Apple and  illustrates another worry. Apple chose "off" for third-party tracking in Safari, so it might be argued that Safari users never made that choice themselves and thus  did not violate their privacy; Apple cannot, after all, presume its actions reflect all its users' intentions.
W3C wants the Tracking Preference Expression standard under development to distinguish between users who explicitly do not wish to be tracked, those who do and, on top of that, those who have not expressed a preference. That might result in a DNT checkbox which lets a user select "yes" or "no". If unticked, the browser sends no DNT meta data at all.
Ad networks belonging to the Digital Advertising Alliance, representing 90% of online ads in America (including  and its DoubleClick division) have agreed in principle to DNT and related proposals. These are voluntary but, as explicit privacy policies, contractually binding. But grumbling persists over the details, with networks trying to carve out exceptions that allow them to track certain kinds of actions and not others. Oddly, the networks also want to be able to gather information about users, but not use it for tracking. The search firm has fessed up to doing this though it says its intent was benign. The FTC is investigating the company for violating a 20-year consent agreement signed in 2011 over privacy violations surrounding its launch of  Buzz that requires  to be extra vigilant. This sort of behaviour puts a question mark over its commitment to DNT.
But the FTC seems firmly resolved, and pr ivacy advocates are pushing hard for a tight definition of what "not tracking" means. Mr Soghoian notes that DNT went from being called ridiculous and naive to impossible to par for the course in three years. He believes that even without advertising and tracking networks' full acquiescence, the FTC would have the teeth to pursue enforcement. "Do not track" also enjoys strong backing from Neelie Kroes, the European Union's digital tsarina, who in June 2011 demanded that heavy machine industry advertisers self-regulate to allow European web users to opt out of tracking within a year. One way or another, then, tracking is set to become much more difficult. Internet giants are no doubt peeved—and preparing to tweak their business models.