Mozilla's "Do Not Track" Feature Gains Popularity
Mozilla announces two developments that bring its Do Not Track privacy feature in Firefox closer to being respected by industry.
"To provide users more choice and control over online behavioral tracking, it’s essential that publishers and advertisers adopt and implement Web technologies that respect consumers’ wishes to not be tracked across their Web properties and services," writes Alex Fowler on the Mozilla Blog. Prompting Fowler's post are two new developments that are helping to move the Do Not Track (DNT) privacy feature to become and industry standard. Those developments include the AP News Registry service implementing the DNT header across 800 news sites that service 175-million unique visitors each month and the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) is initiating a process to explore incorporating the DNT header, as proposed by Mozilla, into its Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA).
Fowler states that with the integration of the DNT into Firefox, users can now check a Do Not Track box in the Advanced screen in Firefox Options (PC) or Preferences (Mac) and when DNT is enabled, a signal sent via an HTTP header tells websites and third parties that the user wants to opt-out of online behavioral tracking.
Comments
comments powered by Disqus
Issue 173/2015
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
Old Vulnerabilities Are Kept Alive Through Bad Configuration
HP's annual Cyber Risk report offers a bleak look at the state of IT.
-
Linus Torvalds Announces Linux 4.0
But what do the big numbers really mean?
-
Microsoft Frees CoreCLR
.NET Core execution engine is the basis for cross-platform .NET implementations.
-
New Trojan Attacks Linux Servers
The Xnote trojan hides itself on the target system and will launch a variety of attacks on command.
-
Cisco Releases Annual Security Report
Spammers go low-volume, and 90% of IE browsers are unpatched.
-
Zero Day Exploits Target Flash
Adobe scrambles to release patches for vulnerable Flash Player.
-
Intel Unveils Compute Stick
Four-inch-long computer on a stick lets you boot a full Linux system from any HDMI display device.
-
Obama Proposes Personal Data Notification Law
New statute would require companies to report break-ins to consumers.
-
TGXf Project Warns of File Transfer through Screen Pixels
Weird data transfer technique avoids all standard security measures.
-
Industry Giants Announce a Fix for the Password Mess
FIDO alliance declares the beginning of the end for old-style login authentication.
Amber?
DNT implementation on websites
And also to the write: This is a Linux magazine, so why not mention how to change the setting on a "Linux" Firefox ?