[LINK] The Do Not Track Standard

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

W3C Announces Peter Swire as new Co-Chair for Do Not Track Standard

 http://www.w3.org/2012/11/tpwg-chair-pr.html

28 November 2012 — Today the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announces 
the appointment of Peter Swire as co-Chair of the Tracking Protection 
Working Group. The group is working to define the Do Not Track protocol, 
and to establish agreement about what compliance with the Do Not Track 
signal will mean in practice. A law professor at the Ohio State 
University and veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations (in the 
US), Swire brings significant experience in consensus-building and broad 
expertise on privacy matters to the table.

"W3C's Do Not Track process is designed to foster an Internet that users 
globally can trust," said Swire, "with consumer choice, transparency 
about privacy practices, and continued innovation that brings diverse 
content to all those who use the Internet."

The Tracking Protection Working Group is chartered to seek a consensus-
based solution for Do Not Track, part of W3C’s work on a complete Open 
Web Platform. Participants represent the advertising and publishing 
ecosystems, browser makers, consumer groups, relevant governmental 
agencies and other stakeholders. 

"A global Do Not Track standard will enable Web sites to honor consumers' 
privacy preferences, while maintaining technical flexibility and 
supporting innovation," said Thomas Roessler, W3C Technology and Society 
Domain Lead. "We look forward to Peter Swire’s broadly respected 
leadership on this project."

Swire will lead the group’s work on the compliance aspects of the Do Not 
Track. In this role, he replaces Aleecia M. McDonald, who is stepping 
down. Matthias Schunter (Intel) will continue to co-chair the group, 
focusing on the Do Not Track protocol specification.

(About the World Wide Web Consortium: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) 
is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time 
staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C 
primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and 
guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. The Open Web 
Platform Open Web Platform is a current major focus. Over 375 
organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the 
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) 
in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and 
Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan, 
and has additional Offices worldwide. For more information see 
http://www.w3.org)

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ps1: Instead of a permanent browser-opt-out resource, industry wants this:
http://www.aboutads.info/choices BUT "these opt out choices selected are 
stored in opt out cookies only in this browser, so you should separately 
set your preferences for other browsers or computers you may use. 
Deleting browser cookies can remove your opt out preferences..". So, it's
too bad if you, like me, delete all cookies, eg, after each web session.

ps2: "Internet Explorer and Chrome have already installed Do Not Track 
settings for users. But in the absence of accepted global standards for 
these systems, ad networks and data brokers are NOT yet honoring the 
don’t-track-me browser flags. Even Microsoft’s and Google’s own ad 
services don’t respond to such signals coming from their own browsers." 
(Ref: www.nytimes.com)

Cheers,
Stephen