14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is working to implement a privacy option in Firefox that would allow users to tell websites they don't wish to have their browsing habits tracked for targeting advertising purposes.
Back at the beginning of December, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a report entitled "Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change," which concluded that consumers bear too much burden when it comes to protecting their privacy online.
On the matter of targeted or behavioral advertising, the Commission proposed that browsers implement a persistent setting that would reflect the consumers' choice to not have their browsing habits tracked.
At the moment, in order to do this, users need to add dozens of opt-out cookies, an unrealistic approach that favors the advertising networks.
Another option is to ban all third-party cookies by going to Tools > Options > Privacy, selecting "Firefox will use custom settings for history" from the History drop-down list and unchecking "accept third-party cookies."
According to Alex Fowler, Mozilla's global privacy and public policy leader, Firefox developers are currently working on a new implementation, which involves the use of a Do-Not-Track field in the HTTP header.
The option would come disabled by default so users will still have to opt out of targeted advertising instead of opting in, but once activated, it would send the header with each request.
However, unlike the "accept third-party cookies" options, it leaves the decision of respecting user choice to the advertising networks which so far have not commented on the issue.
"We believe the HTTP header is a constructive approach and one of the many areas we’re exploring to put users in control of their web experience," Mr. Fowler says.
Unfortunately, the other major browser makers have not expressed any interest to adopt a similar header-based solution and will likely favor other implementations, which will lead to the fragmentation and ambiguity the FTC was trying to prevent in the first place.