14 DAY TRIAL // Do Not Track's future looks grim as, after years of negotiations, things are at a standstill.
One privacy advocate involved in the discussion at the W3C over the proposed Do Not Track standard is arguing that, if there's no resolution by July, the current process should end.
"The group remains at an impasse. We have sharpened issues, and we have made some progress on low-hanging fruit," Jonathan Mayer, a privacy advocate at the Stanford University, wrote in the group's talk page at the W3C.
"But we still have not resolved our longstanding key disagreements, including: What information can websites collect, retain, and use? What sorts of user interfaces and defaults are compliant, and can websites ignore noncompliant browsers?," he added.
"I would make two proposals for next Wednesday's call. First, that we commit to not punting our July deadline. If we have not attained agreement on Last Call documents, we should wind up the working group. Second, that we begin planning a responsible contingency process for winding up the working group if we miss our deadline," he proposed.
Do No Track has been around for years. Slowly but surely, all the major browser makers, even Google, implemented the feature which enables users to signal their wish to opt out of targeted advertising which relies on user tracking.
But, even though browsers support it, Do Not Track doesn't do anything at this moment. The technology relies on advertisers respecting the wishes of the users, but there's no way of enforcing the "do not track" policy.
Still, the advertising industry, privacy rights groups, and everyone else involved in the talks were making progress until Microsoft unilaterally decided that it was going to implement Do Not Track as it saw fit.
In Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 8, the feature is enabled by default and users have to make a choice when they first configure the operating system as to whether they want tracking or not.
But the specs stated that it had to be a user choice and that Do Not Track should not default to either enabled or disabled.
Advertisers balked at the move and discussions haven't gone far since. Granted, the core of the problem is more serious than Microsoft not following the spec.
In essence, there's no consensus on just what advertising companies should be able to track and store if a user opts for Do Not Track. In fact, it's gotten so bad that some are asking for an end to the process, as no progress has been made.