

Yahoo Dings “Do Not Track” Default (And Search Partner Microsoft)  - kuida0r3
http://allthingsd.com/20121026/yahoo-dings-do-not-track-default-and-search-partner-microsoft/

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imtyler
Could this perhaps have been Microsoft's intention? They've implemented a
widely unpopular feature that is bound to be circumvented on a large scale.
They basically bastardized the execution of DNT, making it moot while at the
same time protecting them from any personal liability. Or am I being cynical?

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ianstormtaylor
Could be, but to be fair their implementation is in line with the DNT draft
which says that DNT=1 is a valid default for user agents. Maybe the draft
writers didn't think through what the consequences would be for DNT support if
DNT=1 became the default in any majority of browsers.

The way I see it either the consequences for not respecting DNT need to be
greater somehow or the default implementation can't be DNT=1 because third
parties will simply ignore it. Without consequences, a default of DNT=1 just
weakens the draft and hurts the people who really do want to block everything.

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molecule
_In order to respect user intent, we must ignore user intent which may be
expressed via a recently added user setting, because the setting's default
value interferes w/ our profit margin._

Orwellian.

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shanelja
I feel that this is is often blown far out of proportion, everyone sells the
whole DNT option as the holy grail of privacy, but the honest truth is that
not everyone cares about privacy, in fact, most people don't care about it at
all.

Everyone seems to be confusing privacy with "tiny amounts of information" such
as age, gender, etc. which most people are perfectly happy entering on
basically any site.

It shouldn't be advertised as "Do not track gives you privacy" it should be
advertised as "Do not track stops companies from saving personal information
about you, such as age, gender and location. Whilst this increases your level
of anonymity while you browse, it also lowers the companies ability to provide
you with a valuable experience, for instance, it can stop adverts popping up
which you may find irrelevant and will allow them to better follow your needs
online."

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ianstormtaylor
It would be interesting to see a list compiled for the most popular services
showing the features they would no longer be able to offer with DNT.

~~~
jre
An intelligent response from Yahoo would have been to do exactly that : show a
one-time popup to IE10 users that have DNT enabled and explain them what they
win/loose.

But ignoring the setting is just plain arrogant.

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ConstantineXVI
I didn't catch anything about DNT at all during setup on my Surface (not
saying it wasn't there). Just tried to find the setting; it's not exposed on
the Metro side at all, it's not in the logical place for it (the "Privacy"
tab), rather in the "Advanced" tab and under the Security heading, nearly at
the bottom of the list[0]. Microsoft's DNT position has always smelled like a
political stunt, burying it like this doesn't do much to disprove that.

[0]
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/xslbzy04l37wnf7/Screenshot%20%289%...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/xslbzy04l37wnf7/Screenshot%20%289%29.png)

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RexRollman
This would sadden me if Yahoo offered the world anything of value.

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mtgx
Of course this is their response, and I'm sure the response of a lot of other
advertisers, too. Microsoft is deciding for the user (the option to disable
appears in an obscure place with the installation of Windows 8, which I'm sure
most people will miss).

If they were serious about this, they would just block those cookies by
default. Otherwise it's pointless, and having Microsoft decide for the user
makes the advertiser's decision to ignore it even easier.

