When you select a privacy option, it is expected that your selection be honored. But, is it? It may depend on your browser settings.
In a story for the New York Times, Natasha Singer writes that: “The new Internet Explorer 10 comes with the don’t-track-me option automatically enabled, a fact that the software makes clear. During installation, a notice will appear giving users the choice to keep that preselected don’t-track-me preference as is, or switch it off on a customization menu. It’s a radical move for a technology company, especially one like Microsoft, with an ad business of its own. ‘No one says today, when a consumer first loads a product, ‘Hey, by the way, there are some privacy choices you may want to consider,’ says Alex Fowler, the global privacy and policy leader at Mozilla. He believes that this may be the first time that privacy features so prominently ‘in the first-run experience of a consumer software product.’ Right now, however, people who raise the do-not-track flag are making a mostly symbolic choice, having their browsers send out a preference signal. Web sites that receive the signal can honor it — or simply disregard it.”
Click the image to learn more from Singer.
Image by Julia Yellow
Post suggested by Keith Crumpler Jr.