MickeyBlue42
Member
Thought this is a great effort by Firefox to ensure future online privacy...
The makers of the popular Firefox Web browser are exploring ways to create a do-not-track mechanism that could offer Internet users a way to avoid being monitored online.
The effort comes just months after Firefox's creator, Mozilla Corp., killed a powerful and new tool to limit tracking under pressure from an ad-industry executive, The Wall Street Journal has learned. Mozilla says it didn't scrap the tool because of pressure, but rather out of concern it would force advertisers to use even sneakier techniques and could slow down the performance of some websites.
Meanwhile, online advertising company Lotame Solutions Inc. is also supporting efforts for an industry-created do-not-track mechanism. Lotame's powerful tracking technologies were featured in a front-page article in the Journal earlier this year.
The tensions reflect growing concern about the burgeoning trade in personal information online. Increasingly, advertisers don't want to simply buy ads online—they want to buy access to specific people they consider most open to their message. The data-gathering industry is the subject of a Journal investigative report, "What They Know."
The idea of a do-not-track mechanism that could be built into Web browsing software is gaining steam in Washington. This week, a House subcommittee on consumer protection is holding a hearing about do-not-track proposals and the Federal Trade Commission is expected to release a online privacy report that will promote a do-not-track mechanism.
How 'Do Not Track' Might Work
Officials from Mozilla and Lotame are expected to appear at a separate panel this week to discuss how the industry could create its own do-not-track mechanism before "government tries to legislate how browsers function," according to the event organizer, Jules Polonetsky, director of the Future of Privacy Forum, an Internet-industry funded think tank.
The group will discuss a technical method that would allow Web browsers to broadcast a "do not track" message at a user's request.
For such a tool to work, browser makers would need to build in such a feature and tracking companies would need to agree to not to track users that use the tool.
"Our goal is to put the user in control but not overwhelm them," says Mike Shaver, vice president of engineering at Mozilla. Firefox, the second most popular browser, was used by about 23% of the world's Web users in October, according to NetApplications.com. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer was selected by 59% of Web users and Google Inc.'s Chrome was used by about 9%.
Lotame, which is based in New York, operates an ad network that reached about 84 million people in October. It builds detailed profiles on Web users, including comments they type on websites, and sells that information to companies seeking customers.
"We strongly support transparency and choice for online consumers," Lotame said. "In this spirit, we'll continue to adopt new and innovative privacy management tools."
Currently, tracking companies aren't required by law to offer people an option of not being tracked, though some voluntarily offer a so-called "opt out."
Last week, the online-advertising industry unveiled a website, www.aboutads.info, which allows people to opt out of 58 tracking companies, including Lotame, with a single click. Mike Zaneis, senior vice president at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, said "we've built the functional equivalent of do-not-track."
However, those 58 companies are only a portion of the tracking industry. Earlier this year, the Journal found 131 companies that installed tracking tools on computers of visitors to the top 50 U.S. websites. Former ad executive Jim Brock has compiled a list of 274 companies on his website, PrivacyChoice.org, that use tracking technology.
Of those companies, Mr. Brock has found 171 companies offer an opt out option. To opt out, a consumer usually must install a file on their machine—called a cookie—that prevents data about the individual from being used for targeted advertising. Opting out doesn't prevent the user's information from being collected.
"The current cookie based opt-out system is clumsy and fails too often," says Mr. Polonetsky of the Future of Privacy Forum.
Concerns about the effectiveness of opt-outs have prompted calls for a better method of blocking tracking. In 2007, nine privacy groups wrote a letter to the FTC calling for a "Do Not Track" list modeled on the Do Not Call registry that prohibits telemarketing phone calls. However, it's not easy to create a list of computers to not be tracked, so the proposal died.
The idea resurfaced earlier this year when privacy researchers came up with the notion of installing small bit of code in a Web browser that would essentially broadcast a message to every website saying "do not track this user." It would only work if tracking companies would agree to honor the user's request. So far, no tracking companies have signed on.
Neither have any commercial browser makers. Google and Microsoft both said they are awaiting details of a do-not-track proposal before taking a position. Apple Inc., which makes Safari, the fourth most popular Web browser, declined to comment.
The Journal reported earlier this year that Microsoft had scaled back some privacy features in Internet Explorer 8 under pressure from the advertising industry.
Mozilla, which is run by a nonprofit foundation that receives the majority of its revenue from Google, has also received pressure from advertisers about its efforts to limit tracking.
In May, Mozilla engineer Dan Witte proposed a mechanism that caused cookies to automatically expire when a user closed his or her Web browser. (By comparison, most tracking cookies last for years). It only affected tracking cookies—not cookies that websites use to remember users' passwords or shopping cart information.
Mr. Witte's proposal was inserted into a developers' version of the Firefox browser on May 28. By early June, however, the news trickled out to advertising industry executive Simeon Simeonov.
Mr. Simeonov is the co-founder of a company, Better Advertising, that provides technology to online-ad companies. When he heard about the change, Mr. Simeonov said he worried it "would have broad, unforeseen impact on the consumer experience and perhaps even on the Web ecosystem."
Mr. Simeonov reached out to the chief executive of Mozilla, who put him in touch with Jay Sullivan, vice president of products at Mozilla. The two spoke on June 9. Mr. Sullivan said Mr. Simeonov expressed concern that the change would prompt advertisers to "go underground" to conduct even more surreptitious forms of tracking. Mr. Sullivan said that Mr. Simeonov's comments "supported what we were already thinking."
Mr. Sullivan added that Mr. Simeonov was one of many people who expressed concerns about the change, including representatives from companies that use tracking tools to provide Web statistics and companies that host content on behalf of other companies. He said the tool would have slowed down or hampered the performance of those companies.
The software was removed from the Firefox prototype on June 10. Mr. Sullivan said it's not unusual for proposed changes to be rejected. "We haven't precluded making all these changes but we didn't want to do it two weeks before the release" of a new test version of the browser, he said. The final version of the browser will be released early next year; it does not include any new tools to limit tracking.
Mr. Shaver rejected the notion that Mozilla's decisions may be influenced by the advertising industry. Rather, he said Mozilla is driven by the needs of Web users and its mission that the Internet must remain open and accessible.
In its most recent financial statements, Mozilla disclosed about $86 million of its $104 million in 2009 revenue came from an advertising agreement with Google.
"I wouldn't say we are under pressure from advertisers," said Mr. Shaver. "They are a big part of the economics of the Web. We want to understand what their needs are."
What do you guys think??
The makers of the popular Firefox Web browser are exploring ways to create a do-not-track mechanism that could offer Internet users a way to avoid being monitored online.
The effort comes just months after Firefox's creator, Mozilla Corp., killed a powerful and new tool to limit tracking under pressure from an ad-industry executive, The Wall Street Journal has learned. Mozilla says it didn't scrap the tool because of pressure, but rather out of concern it would force advertisers to use even sneakier techniques and could slow down the performance of some websites.
Meanwhile, online advertising company Lotame Solutions Inc. is also supporting efforts for an industry-created do-not-track mechanism. Lotame's powerful tracking technologies were featured in a front-page article in the Journal earlier this year.
The tensions reflect growing concern about the burgeoning trade in personal information online. Increasingly, advertisers don't want to simply buy ads online—they want to buy access to specific people they consider most open to their message. The data-gathering industry is the subject of a Journal investigative report, "What They Know."
The idea of a do-not-track mechanism that could be built into Web browsing software is gaining steam in Washington. This week, a House subcommittee on consumer protection is holding a hearing about do-not-track proposals and the Federal Trade Commission is expected to release a online privacy report that will promote a do-not-track mechanism.
How 'Do Not Track' Might Work
Officials from Mozilla and Lotame are expected to appear at a separate panel this week to discuss how the industry could create its own do-not-track mechanism before "government tries to legislate how browsers function," according to the event organizer, Jules Polonetsky, director of the Future of Privacy Forum, an Internet-industry funded think tank.
The group will discuss a technical method that would allow Web browsers to broadcast a "do not track" message at a user's request.
For such a tool to work, browser makers would need to build in such a feature and tracking companies would need to agree to not to track users that use the tool.
"Our goal is to put the user in control but not overwhelm them," says Mike Shaver, vice president of engineering at Mozilla. Firefox, the second most popular browser, was used by about 23% of the world's Web users in October, according to NetApplications.com. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer was selected by 59% of Web users and Google Inc.'s Chrome was used by about 9%.
Lotame, which is based in New York, operates an ad network that reached about 84 million people in October. It builds detailed profiles on Web users, including comments they type on websites, and sells that information to companies seeking customers.
"We strongly support transparency and choice for online consumers," Lotame said. "In this spirit, we'll continue to adopt new and innovative privacy management tools."
Currently, tracking companies aren't required by law to offer people an option of not being tracked, though some voluntarily offer a so-called "opt out."
Last week, the online-advertising industry unveiled a website, www.aboutads.info, which allows people to opt out of 58 tracking companies, including Lotame, with a single click. Mike Zaneis, senior vice president at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, said "we've built the functional equivalent of do-not-track."
However, those 58 companies are only a portion of the tracking industry. Earlier this year, the Journal found 131 companies that installed tracking tools on computers of visitors to the top 50 U.S. websites. Former ad executive Jim Brock has compiled a list of 274 companies on his website, PrivacyChoice.org, that use tracking technology.
Of those companies, Mr. Brock has found 171 companies offer an opt out option. To opt out, a consumer usually must install a file on their machine—called a cookie—that prevents data about the individual from being used for targeted advertising. Opting out doesn't prevent the user's information from being collected.
"The current cookie based opt-out system is clumsy and fails too often," says Mr. Polonetsky of the Future of Privacy Forum.
Concerns about the effectiveness of opt-outs have prompted calls for a better method of blocking tracking. In 2007, nine privacy groups wrote a letter to the FTC calling for a "Do Not Track" list modeled on the Do Not Call registry that prohibits telemarketing phone calls. However, it's not easy to create a list of computers to not be tracked, so the proposal died.
The idea resurfaced earlier this year when privacy researchers came up with the notion of installing small bit of code in a Web browser that would essentially broadcast a message to every website saying "do not track this user." It would only work if tracking companies would agree to honor the user's request. So far, no tracking companies have signed on.
Neither have any commercial browser makers. Google and Microsoft both said they are awaiting details of a do-not-track proposal before taking a position. Apple Inc., which makes Safari, the fourth most popular Web browser, declined to comment.
The Journal reported earlier this year that Microsoft had scaled back some privacy features in Internet Explorer 8 under pressure from the advertising industry.
Mozilla, which is run by a nonprofit foundation that receives the majority of its revenue from Google, has also received pressure from advertisers about its efforts to limit tracking.
In May, Mozilla engineer Dan Witte proposed a mechanism that caused cookies to automatically expire when a user closed his or her Web browser. (By comparison, most tracking cookies last for years). It only affected tracking cookies—not cookies that websites use to remember users' passwords or shopping cart information.
Mr. Witte's proposal was inserted into a developers' version of the Firefox browser on May 28. By early June, however, the news trickled out to advertising industry executive Simeon Simeonov.
Mr. Simeonov is the co-founder of a company, Better Advertising, that provides technology to online-ad companies. When he heard about the change, Mr. Simeonov said he worried it "would have broad, unforeseen impact on the consumer experience and perhaps even on the Web ecosystem."
Mr. Simeonov reached out to the chief executive of Mozilla, who put him in touch with Jay Sullivan, vice president of products at Mozilla. The two spoke on June 9. Mr. Sullivan said Mr. Simeonov expressed concern that the change would prompt advertisers to "go underground" to conduct even more surreptitious forms of tracking. Mr. Sullivan said that Mr. Simeonov's comments "supported what we were already thinking."
Mr. Sullivan added that Mr. Simeonov was one of many people who expressed concerns about the change, including representatives from companies that use tracking tools to provide Web statistics and companies that host content on behalf of other companies. He said the tool would have slowed down or hampered the performance of those companies.
The software was removed from the Firefox prototype on June 10. Mr. Sullivan said it's not unusual for proposed changes to be rejected. "We haven't precluded making all these changes but we didn't want to do it two weeks before the release" of a new test version of the browser, he said. The final version of the browser will be released early next year; it does not include any new tools to limit tracking.
Mr. Shaver rejected the notion that Mozilla's decisions may be influenced by the advertising industry. Rather, he said Mozilla is driven by the needs of Web users and its mission that the Internet must remain open and accessible.
In its most recent financial statements, Mozilla disclosed about $86 million of its $104 million in 2009 revenue came from an advertising agreement with Google.
"I wouldn't say we are under pressure from advertisers," said Mr. Shaver. "They are a big part of the economics of the Web. We want to understand what their needs are."
What do you guys think??
