14 DAY TRIAL // Do Not Track is basically dead, as the parties involved haven't been able to come to terms and never will be. But the issue of online privacy is still a real one, now more than ever, and it's a bit ironic (though fitting) that the solution comes from Google, the largest advertising company on the web.
The search giant plans to come up with an alternative to the browser cookies that will enable advertisers to track user interest, for more relevant ads, but also to give them some control over that tracking.
There's nothing official just yet, though Google hasn't denied that it is looking at alternatives.
According to USA Today, the Mountain View-based company plans to use an AdID which would act in similar ways to a browser cookie. It would be stored locally by the browser and still serve as a way of gauging user interests.
But the AdID would be anonymous, for what it's worth, and users will be able to set their browser to delete it once every year. They can also set up an alternate AdID to use for more sensitive searches that they don't want tracked.
Google would share the AdID only with advertisers and groups that meet certain criteria, for example, respect user settings and privacy.
AdID certainly offers more control to the user, but it’s still a tracking technology and not what privacy activists have been looking for. But it may very well be the best they get, at least for now.
New web technology lives and dies by browser adoption. But with Google having the most popular browser in the world as well as the biggest sites and the largest ad network, it is in a unique position to push for big changes and new technologies like this and have a fair chance at getting others to adopt them.