Tech: Do Not Track Legislation? USA

Subject: Tech: Do Not Track Legislation? USA
From: Janie
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 08:50 PM

got an e-mail today from Consumers Union advocating for the above legislation. I usually feel pretty comfortable with their recommendations and positions, but when it comes to the internet, I don't always understand the implications.

Here is the e-mail.

Someone is following you around. At least, online they are.

When you go online, you unwittingly give companies lots of information about yourself based on the sites you visit, the searches you run, the movies you watch and more.

Trackers say that online tracking is good because it helps deliver ads that will interest you. That's fine, if that's what you choose. But right now, you can't say "No."

Tracking software has become so sophisticated that you sometimes can't even delete the tracking code using the tools built into your browser. Meanwhile, the tools that let you surf the net privately are often hard to use and ineffective.

It's time to stop the unwanted tracking once and for all!

Although polls show that most of us would prefer more privacy and less tracking, companies that rely on advertising have no incentive to give us the tools we need. And even if they did, no law requires them to abide by our wishes.

That's why Congress is now considering "Do Not Track" legislation to let us all choose not to be tracked and then enforce our preferences. A bill in the Senate would require companies to abide by your Do Not Track choices, while bi-partisan legislation in the House gives parents control over the tracking of kids' activities online.

Do-Not-Track is the simple way for you to say 'no thanks' to being monitored while you surf the web.

Take a moment right now to show your support for Do-Not-Track legislation in Congress.

Do you know others who may be concerned about their privacy when they go online? Please forward this e-mail to them so they can show their support too.

Sincerely,

Jim Guest
President
Consumer Reports
101 Truman Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10703-1057

Subject: RE: Tech: Do Not Track Legislation? USA
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 12:23 AM

Here's a link to the bill: CLICK HERE.

Subject: RE: Tech: Do Not Track Legislation? USA
From: Artful Codger
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 06:38 AM

These "do not call" and "do not track" approaches are ass-backwards. Rather than having to opt-out in order not to be exploited, we should have to deliberately opt-in to give a company or class of "service providers" our permission for such exploitation.

For instance, the do-not-call list still allows a window for tracking companies to get hold of new phone subscriber information before the prohibition becomes active. Once on these lists, your information still gets sold and circulated, often to miscreants who deliberately violate the laws, knowing that as long as they withhold certain information required for you to prove whom you're dealing with, you won't be able to successfully prosecute them. Companies should never have that window in the first place, and people shouldn't be victimized because they're insufficiently informed how to enroll themselves on the no-call list.

Furthermore, as long as we're paying for our phone service, not even "pollsters", political parties or charities should be able to call us unless we've explicitly signed up to be pestered with such crap. That's not "free speech", it's phone abuse, especially considering the many other venues they have for forcibly proselytizing.

So don't support any new legislation unless it takes the saner, safer opt-in approach to these forms of exploitation. We're supposed to have a government "for the people"--start demanding that it be so, and let the corporate rhetoric about "free speech" be damned.

Subject: RE: Tech: Do Not Track Legislation? USA
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 10:40 AM

This is precisely why I have just deleted my Facebook account - goodbye pseudo-friends. Facebook planting cookies on my PC - even if not as member - and tracking the websites I browsed - was the last straw. This is especially since, whilst I do not visit risque adult sites, I do make purchases on eBay, Amazon, British Airways, Expedia, etc., and do Internet banking. What information Facebook was harvesting is a moot point. I cannot risk any of my secure information getting into the hands of the web-based criminal fraternity; and due to its deliberate invasion of my privacy I regard Facebook as one of the less to be trusted organisations on the web. As far as I can see Facebook and the like are killing the Internet with their collective invasion of privacy. And I didn't opt into their scurrilous schemes - so wtf.

See this link for further information:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-15/facebook-privacy-tracking-data/51225112/1

Subject: RE: Tech: Do Not Track Legislation? USA
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 04:46 PM

I haven't seen this mentioned on profesional webmaster discussion boards yet. At first sight it looks like more attempts at ill thought out anti cookie legislation.