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The Technology Liberation Front

The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
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Do Not Track Registry Likely to Include Exemptions

Started by TLF · 3 months ago

Last week a scad of stories from Reuters to News.com covered the growing push for a “Do Not Track” registry similar to the “Do Not Call” list that serves to protect US households from mid-dinner sales calls. While I understand the concerns expressed ... Continue reading »

3 comments

  • Jeff Chester

    7 months ago

    The Center for Digital Democracy does not support a do-not-track list. We want federal rules that give individuals control over their data--so it can't be readily used by advertisers or government. The commercial surveillance system put in place tracks and analyzes our activities online. It's not a debate about people selling "duvet covers" via digital marketing. It's preventing, if an individual desires, from having a system used by others that includes sensitive information about our lives (health concerns, political interests, etc). At a time when a growing majority, especially young people, are living their lives online, do we want either Big Brother/Big Sister from Washington or Madison Ave. always peering over our (digital) shoulder?
    reply
  • cordblomquist

    7 months ago

    Jeff, sorry if my first paragraph made it sound like you endorsed the plan, which I now you don't. I wanted to state that I empathize with your concerns and that I don't think the list is a good way to address those concerns. So we agree on that front.

    What specifically do you and CDD want to see done on the federal level? The do-not-track list seems flawed, but is there a better solution that can be implemented via federal law?
    reply
  • gr

    6 months ago

    "I think that asking the government to hold a master list of IPs and consumer names is a bad idea, or at least one that won’t do much to really protect consumers."

    The Do-Not-Track list is unfortunately named, as people are led to believe what you just did: that it tracks consumers. It works more like an offender database: it tracks the advertisers, and then the consumer can just download the list and make the choice to protect themselves. So it is quite what you want to be: an easy way for industry to allow consumers to opt-out.

    I blogged about this when the list was first introduced:


    http://infoadvocate.org/blog/2007/11/04/do-not-...

    On your cookie idea, if we create a special kind of cookie that anti-spyware doesn't delete, then malware and trackers will start using it.
    reply

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