Adotas

Where media buyers start online







News

Browser Anti-Tracking Mechanisms Get Failing Marks

Written on
Jan 31, 2011 
Author
Gavin Dunaway  |
Share
Browser Anti-Tracking Mechanisms Get Failing Marks

failADOTAS – OMG! Ever since the Federal Trade Commission like sorta mentioned it wanted a “Do Not Track” kinda function for online advertising, every browser totally been hopping on the bandwagon, ya know? First there was Microsoft, such the trend setter, with IE9 (so hawt!) and then Firefox — even those dorky girls at Chrome put up a “Keep My Opt-Outs” extension.

Whoa there, ladies — perhaps we should dial back the excitement a little bit and examine these options. Hey, Russell Glass, Bizo CEO and Adotas contributor, you know the tracking business pretty well — mind evaluating all these anti-tracking features for us?

He certainly didn’t — and no one gets a good mark (he doesn’t grade on a curve either). IE9 fails, Chrome fails and Firefox squeaks by with a D “for being a blunt instrument.”

Which makes a very good point — it seems to browser “do not track” feature by itself is going to be a half-assed compromise between the advertising industry and users concerned about privacy. Glass further explains how “safe lists” updated by industry self-regulators such as the Network Advertising Initiative could be integrated into browsers, allowing users to customize them and report nogooniks.

It seems like a “best of both worlds” solution — what are your thoughts?





Reader Comments.

No comments yet

Leave a Comment

Add a comment

Tags: , , , , , and
Article Sponsor

More News



  • Once Facebook goes public, what's the most important thing it'll need to do in order to live up the expectations of its real value?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

Latest News

News Archive

Spotlight

Sponsormob Leads the Way Into RTB for MobileADOTAS – For more than half a decade, Berlin-based tech firm Sponsormob has remained relevant in an industry characterized by [...] more...


Adotas Partnership