I have āDo not trackā add-ons for my IE 9, Firefox, and Google Chrome
browsers. Is this add-on of any real benefit?
In this excerpt from
Answercast #76, I look at some of the issues around the āDo not trackā
initiative on the internet.
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Do not track
There is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation around āDo not track.ā Itās even gotten quite political with Microsoftās decision to not only include the āDo not trackā feature in Internet Explorer 10 ā but to turn it on by default. They actually have it enabled when you install IE 10 by default.
Hereās the problem: āDo not trackā doesnāt do anything in the sense that itās not changing what gets tracked on your PC. All āDo not trackā does is it includes with every request you make of a web server, a statement that basically says, āPlease, do not track me.ā
Thatās all it does. It makes a request of the server.
Websites donāt need to honor āDo not track.ā
Now, the problem is that itās a request and there is no compulsion for the server to honor or support that request.
In other words, a well-behaving server, probably serving ads or web pages or what not, will of course, pay attention to the āDo not trackā request and do whatever āDo not trackā means to them. On the other hand, the server might completely ignore it. In other words, itās the same as not having said it at all.
So, does it add any real value? Well, I guess, maybe. It depends on which servers you talk to on a regular basis and whether or not theyāre paying attention to it.
Not concerned about tracking
If youāve read Ask Leo! for any length of time, you know that Iām not really concerned about tracking. I donāt consider tracking to be a huge issue. As an individual, you and I just arenāt that interesting. The fact that āDo not trackā is this messed up really doesnāt concern me that much ā because I wouldnāt turn it on myself in the first place, and I donāt.
Where things got weird is when, like I said, with Internet Explorer 10 turning it on by default⦠some websites have publicly stated that if they see a request coming in from Internet Explorer version 10 with the āDo not trackā setting turned on, they will ignore it.
So itās a complicated mess. Not even simplified in the least by the fact that what does it really mean to track?
What is tracking anyway?
There is no common definition; there is no common understanding of what it means to ātrackā somebody.
Information is always being kept. How that information relates to other information thatās also being kept is probably what most people think of as ātracking.ā But even then, how the information collected over here matches the information collected over there? There may not be a correlation; there may be one.
It may be as simple as simply matching IP addresses. It may be something much more complex, including a convoluted storage of cookies and who knows what. And to be clear, setting āDo not trackā has no effect on your browser storing cookies. It continues to store cookies exactly the way that has in the past, mostly because you need cookies for a lot of different things on the web to work.
All the āDo not trackā setting does literally is ask servers not to track them ā and then trust that they wonāt.
Thereās no verification. Thereās no validation. Thereās no enforcement. So to ultimately, to answer your question, āIs it doing anything of any real benefit?ā In my opinion, no. Others might disagree.
Those sites that are cooperating with the āDo not trackā initiative may in fact be doing something different that some people would consider a benefit. Iām not one of them. Iām not turning it on. The fact that it might be turned on by default in IE 10, I honestly donāt care. Itās just what it is!
The whole āDo not trackā initiative, I think, is playing on a lot of peopleās confusion about the entire issue to make them feel safer than they really are.
(Transcript lightly edited for readability.)
Next from Answercast 76 ā Do tablets need anti-malware software?
I have installed the Ghostery plug-in for Firefox; I am amazed at how much it blocks. See http://www.ghostery.com
I donāt worry much about cookies (the nonfattening kind), but in Firefox and probably all modern browsers, there is an option to erase cookies when you close your browser.
Dear Leo and friends:Hello!I trust and believe everything you say Leo! I just wanted to say that i have āDoNottrackā in my Firefox 16 and also in IE8.
It does have one benefit sir because it does show every Firm and Company that is gathering information of your interests and sites viewed. Leo,Isnāt it true that those sites Do Sell that information for profit? I am not doing anything wrong ,so, I am not worried at all sir. I just think it is a cool thing to have! If nothing else,at least I do know who is watching me right? Thank you again sir.Michkaāel.
Leo,
I am disappointed in your lack of concern about tracking. The issue is not just whether your computer might slow down due to many cookies, or whether you do or do not care about getting more targeted ads.
The issue is that companies did not get your permission to monitor what you did on your computer. Privacy IS important to most people.
You wait and see. If companies are forced to really get peopleās permission to track in the future, I bet that over 80% of people will indicate NO.
I agree that many people think incorrectly that they have enforceable āDo not trackā on their browser now. But Iāll also bet that over 80% of all users think that they SHOULD have automatic enforceable anti-tracking in all browsers. With big fines for companies that do not honor the ādo not trackā.
Having āDo not trackā selected prevents you from logging in to some routers, at least with Firefox (I just spent several hours finding out why I couldnāt log in to a Cisco WRT120N).
āThe issue is that companies did not get your permission to monitor what you did on your computer.ā ā Jack, December 7, 2012 11:24 AM
Iām no lawyer, but I think you do give permission to a website to monitor what you do on their website, when you visit their website.
Itās like having a loyalty card at a store. Sure they give you a discount for being such a loyal customer, but they are also tracking your purchases.
Does either (website or loyalty cards) really bother me? No. Because hopefully, the website or retailer will use this information to provide me with more relevant information, better experience, etc.
The big question is always, what do websites (and retailers) do with the information that they have tracked. As long as they keep it private and use it for their own purposes, I donāt really care. I DO CARE when they start selling the information to the highest bidder.
I would think that Windows servers would be more likely to honor Internet Explorer ārequestsā than other manufacturerās servers. I wonder what percentage windows servers are of all servers. I would think it is quite high.
08-Dec-2012
I do a considerable amount of browsing on the āNet including e-commerce and banking. I use Firefox to which Iāve added AdBlock Plus and Better Privacy. The only anti-virus anti-malware I use is MS Security Essentials. It has been over 5 or 6 years since my computer has been infected by any virus, spyware, or other malware. And I donāt worry about normal cookies. I think Leo says it quite well, āAs an individual, you and I just arenāt that interesting.ā
Part of the secret is not visiting Porn sites. I also stay away from Game sites, music down-load sites, and even FaceBook.
Jack, you state, āThe issue is that companies did not get your permission to monitor what you did on your computer.ā They Donāt! They donāt monitor what you do ON your computer, but do monitor what you do ON THEIR Site.
If you want to be concerned, check out āSuper Cookiesā, a name for LSOs. In the last 16 days Better Privacy has removed over 233 LSOs from my computer which were inserted every time adobe flash was used (which is nearly every time Iāve visited a web site which contains any kind of video. ) So, If you are concerned about cookies, forget the small fry. A Wikipedia anticle states, āBy default, a SWF application running in Flash Player from version 9 to 11 (as of Sept 1, 2011) may store up to 100 kB of data to userās hard drive.ā
I copied the following from a recent UC Berkeley report:
āMore than half of the internetās top web sites use a little known capability of Adobeās Flash plug-in to track users and store information about them, but only four of them mention the so-called Flash Cookies in their privacy policies.ā
Perhaps Leo can post a blurb on LSOs. ??
08-Dec-2012