The W3C Proposes 'Do Not Track' Online Privacy Standard

Earlier in the year, Mozilla made quite a lot of waves with the introduction of the 'Do Not Track' option in the header that Firefox sends out to websites. The idea is to make it possible for users to alert websites that they do not want their browsing to be tracked and stored to be part of a ad targeting campaign.

The feature doesn't really hold any power, websites can decide to obey it or not and there's no way of even knowing which is true.

Still, the feature got some support, both from browser makers but also in the advertising world.

Now though, the W3C, the web's standards body, has stepped in and has proposed a new standard for online privacy, based around the 'Do Not Track' idea.

"The W3C has chartered the Tracking Protection Working Group to address both the privacy concerns of users and regulators, and the business models of the Web, which today rely heavily on advertising revenue," the W3C announced.

"The new standard will allow users to express a preference whether or not data about them can be collected for tracking purposes," it said.

"The standard will also define mechanisms for sites to signal whether and how they honor this preference and a mechanism for allowing the user to grant site-specific exceptions to DNT," it added.

The two mechanisms are still in draft form. The first part, signaling a user's option is relatively simple and the solution is based on what Mozilla is already doing.

There will be an entry in the user agent of any browser but also any other software that can make HTTP requests labeled DNT for Do Not Track which will indicate the preference.

The complicated part is how websites choose to respond to this and how they signal back to the browser. In fact, at this point, the W3C document is filled more with questions than with answers, as the players involved figure out what to do.

Still, it's obvious that the matter is serious enough it the W3C got involved. And plenty of companies directly involved in the matter are behind the initiative, including Mozilla, Opera, Microsoft, Apple and Google, but also Adobe, Facebook, IBM or Yahoo.

The EFF, the US FTC and other privacy or consumer rights groups are also represented. But the W3C moves slowly so it's going to be a while before any of this becomes an actual standard.