Mozilla Congratulates Google Chrome over Implementing Do Not Track

Google is finally biting the bullet and will be supporting Do Not Track in Chrome 23. It took a while to get here, but at this point all major browsers support the Do Not Track header or are on their way to doing so. It's a good milestone, one that Mozilla was glad to celebrate.

Mozilla is also glad to have Google finally on board. Chrome is one of the most popular browsers on the planet, if not the most popular.

But, even more importantly, Google is the world's largest online advertiser. Supporting DNT in Chrome means that it will eventually support it in its ad network.

"It’s also noteworthy that Google and Microsoft have decided to implement their own user interfaces for Do Not Track," Mozilla's Alex Fowler, who leads privacy issues and public policy at the foundation, wrote.

"Mozilla is currently working on the second release of Do Not Track within Firefox, and we remain the only mobile browser to support it," 

"With all these different UI experiments, users have many good options for privacy in their browser of choice and we’ll be able to more quickly determine which approaches best meet users’ expectations," he added.

There has been some controversy over Microsoft’s decision of leaving users no choice; they have to say up front if they want to be tracked or not with the default being no tracking. That goes against the proposed standard and many, including Mozilla have been critical of the move.

In fact, the Apache Software Foundation, which fosters httpd, the Apache Server that powers most of the web, will not be taking into account the DNT header sent by IE10, because of Microsoft's non-standard implementation.

All of this will sort itself out, Mozilla is glad to have all the browser makers on board at least. Still that's just half the battle, if that. Having DNT in browsers means nothing if the setting is not respected by advertisers and websites.