Talk:Do Not Track

Global Privacy Control was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 10 January 2021 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Do Not Track. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here.

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"Proposed" header?[edit]

Asking here because perhaps there's some context I am missing -- the article says "The Do Not Track (DNT) header is the **proposed** HTTP header field DNT that requests that a web application disable either its tracking ... " but it looks like functionality has been implemented for multiple browsers, no? At what point would it stop being a "proposed" field and just be an existing field?

Merger proposal[edit]

Two very similar articles about this same topic have been created recently. I believe we should merge them since the topic is basically identical. This page currently has more content, so probably makes sense as the destination, though I think ultimately the article should end up at Do Not Track rather than specifying "header" in the title. Npdoty (talk) 07:09, 25 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The topics are very close. This article, however, could be used to list the various historical proposals (such as several during the tech bubble)...where as the X-Do-Not-Track should really focus on that header, and the history of that header.Smallman12q (talk) 13:13, 25 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, there are a lot of proposals that have fallen under the name "Do Not Track" and ultimately I think there should be a single article to cover all of them. I think the header would be a good section in that broader article, since it's related and will often be referred to by the name "Do Not Track". Recent versions of the header are using "DNT" rather than "X-Do-Not-Track" anyway and that could continue to change while the popular name will stay the same. Npdoty (talk) 03:33, 26 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with that. I think, that it is important to have one article focussing on all new aspects of this dnt-feature.--Teepoet (talk) 22:21, 6 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Agree . I think there should be only one article as well. Xionbox^₪ 06:04, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Agree I think that only one article for this feature deserves to exist. --kongr43gpen ^Talk 11:16, 23 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Update: There's a new related article that's more policy-focused: Do Not Track Policy. I propose we merge these two articles at Do Not Track. Npdoty (talk) 02:14, 7 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

USA Only information[edit]

Another instance of America being the centre of the universe. Gee I'm really glad "congress" is doing that.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.136.202.145 (talk) 09:32, 22 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You are welcome to add other information. The "Do not track" header is drafted by a W3C workgroup with input from a number of American companies.Smallman12q (talk) 00:57, 23 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Chrome[edit]

Though Chrome does not support the header, Google did release an extension, Keep My Opt-Outs to add support.Smallman12q (talk) 00:57, 23 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Google's Keep My Opt-Outs, while having a similar aim, is actually implemented with opt-out cookies and has nothing to do with HTTP headers. Mojoworker (talk) 23:02, 23 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Just to update this talk page - the article now says Chrome 23 does support it (currently in beta version 23). I added a link to the separate KMOO. Widefox; talk 12:28, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Supported by IE9?[edit]

Does IE9 actually support DNT? I don't see this explicitly stated in the reference, just that it supports Tracking Protection Lists and that DNT is part of the wider tracking discussion.[1] --Pmsyyz (talk) 12:25, 31 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I did some searching and it turns out it sends the header to sites in Tracking Protection Lists when one is turned on. --Pmsyyz (talk) 18:20, 2 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The biggest problem with DNT is...[edit]

...that websites can punish users for enabling it (nagging/kicking/banning) --Btx40 (talk) 18:04, 10 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

* unenforceable.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:6C48:7006:200:D84D:5A80:173:901D (talk) 03:16, 20 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Capitalisation[edit]

The references use title case, and the header DNT is code, so I put the name in the lead to the same as the article title, and put code round the DNT etc. Widefox; talk 13:18, 31 October 2012 (UTC) ..and put a html comment in the article that, we may consider this as a title case article name (an exception) to the naming guideline. Widefox; talk 12:28, 1 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Do Not Track is back?[edit]

I found this news article, saying that the U.S. Senate is bringing it back. is this notable? i see not mention of it.

Let's wait for more detailed publications about the proposal. So far I have a few questions and comments:

1. This might be also (or more) relevant to Do Not Track legislation rather than here.

2. What is the proposal? Is there a "Do Not Track list" as the article implies with "by allowing any one to put themselves on a Do Not Track list at the 'touch of a button.'". Or is there no "Do Not Track list" because the original press release only compares this system to "Do Not Call" list and never explicitly mentions "Do Not Track" list?

3. If there is no "Do Not Track list", then the Register got it all wrong. It should not be used as a source for this article.

4. If the proposal actually calls for a "Do Not Track list", what is the mechanism? I'm afraid such system it is dead on arrival for technological reasons. First of all, who would maintain this list and what will be on the list, and how it would work? The "Do not call" list works because every user has a permanent phone number that can be put onto the list. In contrast, IP addresses (which are arguably the web equivalent of phone numbers) are frequently assigned dynamically (public-facing IPv6 addresses can easily change even within the same browsing session let alone persist long enough to be put on a list) or are shared by multiple users via Network address translation (common with IPv4 addresses). As I read it, the proposal would be an opt-out mechanism, so the burden of proof that user is on the list would fall onto user, so user would have to demonstrate that it is on the list, which means user needs to present some (semi)unique identifier or some other.

Anton.bersh (talk) 04:19, 27 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Here is the actual proposal published in full. The main takeaways are:

1. There is no "Do Not Track list", as the Register implies.

2. This is actually describing the DNT header, albeit in very vague terms: "DNT signal to every website, online service, or online application to which the device connects each time the device connects to such website, service, or application".

Anton.bersh (talk) 04:59, 27 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]