Photo under Creative Commons license thanks to Sean MacEntee
Good news today as the White House supports efforts for online service providers and web browsers to implement a “do not track standard”– just as we have been doing here in the EU.
“Do not track” is a valuable safeguard when you’re browsing online. Tracking online can bring benefits for users – meaning for example you can benefit from tailored online offerings. But the important thing is to let the user decide: to put the user in control, in a fair and transparent way. A “do not track” standard will help do this.
I’ve long been a big supporter of this industry standard, which is already being developed by big global players like Google, Nokia, and Microsoft. With thinking now moving in the same direction on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s clear which way the wind’s blowing, and that this “do-not-track” standard needs to be the industry’s response to the user demand for privacy safeguards.
The industry now needs, by this June, to develop and deliver a standard that governs the consequences when a user does select not to be tracked, and meets other key features. I know they are working hard to do this: they have my full support.
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Tags: Digital Agenda, do-not-track, privacy, USA, W3C, White House
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What industry does is only a response to regulatory pressure. So the task is to strengthen the pressure and combat existing abuses by these companies. We cannot follow the same mistakes made on the financial markets, to leave the creation of market order to the markets themselves. It is the duty of the Commission to set order and enforce is also against services from abroad. It is the foremost duty of the state to defend the privacy of our citizens against foreign commercial espionage.
Although user tracking carried out by companies like Facebook, Google, Adobe, etc. is a nuisance, you can easily fight back with just a few simple measures (basically a modern, properly customized web browser), you don’t have to resign to it! What you and the US president try to sell people as a “success”, is nothing but fuss.
Compared to other data recorded of citizens (no “DNT” flimflam here) due to EU “directives”, that’s just plain laughable! You kept pretty quiet, didn’t you, about superb EU cock-ups as the SWIFT sellout, the PNR fiasco or the EU Directive 2006/24/EC — just to mention the best known.
Any remorse on these “masterpieces”? Why not?!
Well, privacy online is a difficult issue… There are various things to consider when it comes to it since it’s extremely new