By Stewart Mitchell, PC Pro
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/377479/report-advertisers-undermining-do-not-track-plans
The internet advertising industry is undermining moves to improve online
privacy in a bid to protect a market “optimised to maximise collection
of data”, according to a report into Do Not Track by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.
According to the report, advertising companies are simultaneously trying
to water down proposed laws on Do Not Track, while working on methods
to circumvent the limited protections already in place in web browsers
such as Internet Explorer.
“The advertising industry has argued for systemically weakening what
‘Do Not Track’ means, and has retreated from earlier, stronger promises
to limit tracking,” it found.
The researchers also said the advertising industry was backtracking
on earlier promises to respect user requests not to be tracked.
“Industry groups presently are lobbying for a different interpretation
[of Do Not Track] that would allow pervasive tracking and use of
information derived from online experiences, even if the consumer opts
out,” the report said.
For example, 60% of research respondents said that Do Not Track
should mean just that, but the industry wants to be able to collect such
data for other purposes, such as market research.
“Other tracking vectors are presently difficult for consumers to avoid,
because they enable server-side tracking, because they are not well
known by consumers, or because privacy controls for these tools are not
popularly available,” the report said. “These include device
fingerprinting, HTML5 local storage, Document Object Model objects, and
Silverlight cookies.”
Accept or miss out
The report also suggested that – in a similar way to how cookie laws
in Europe have been watered down by sites simply announcing they drop
cookies rather than get permission – companies might make accepting
tracking a requirement of using their sites.
The report claims online companies could make it impossible to use
their sites unless users agree to turn off “Do Not Track” requests in
their browsers even if Do Not Track rules do offer any protection.
“It is foreseeable that regardless of the form Do Not Track takes,
websites will simply require consumers to disable it in order to access
content,” the report said.
Do consumers care?
However, the report also highlights another disparity – that between
privacy concerns of consumer campaigners and consumers themselves.
Do Not Track has been covered widely in the US and elsewhere, with the The Wall Street Journal in particular running regular stories on the subject and campaigning for more controls.
However, the report showed that the message was not getting through
to end users, with only 13% of survey respondents having even heard of
Do Not Track.