The present internet medium is riddled with ads – some prove to be quite useful, while others are simply outrageous, and stupid. Not only do ads scrupulously target us, but websites tend to understand something different when it comes down to the Do Not Track Policy.
The EFF, which translates to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has just released a tougher Do Not Track Policy to ensure users across the world that websites that dwell in shady strategies will get what’s coming to them.
The advertising industry, which one may think is run by the Devil himself, usually understands the Do Not Track Policy as a Do Not Target, with ads of course. They still keep your data tightly wrapped in their servers, but they just don’t use it.
Casey Oppenheim, who is one of the co-founders of the EFF, and who also worked on this brand new policy, notes that publishers are taking advantage of this loophole, and this must stop.
Oppenheim notes in the new EFF policy that once an user opts-out of the tracking system, websites should abide by his wishes, stop collecting unique fingerprints, cookies, logs which contain browser information, and his, or hers, IP address for no more than 10 days!
An exception to the rule might be when the law requires the data to be transmitted, or when a transaction is required – either by the user, or the company which involves the user in case.
Medium is one of the initial partners that jumped on the bandwagon along with, go figure, AdBlock, the all-about-privacy search engine DuckDuckGo, and one of the top analytics company in the world Mixpanel.
With time, Oppenheim wishes that more companies will abide by their new Do Not Track Policy, thus ensuring users that surf their websites that they are privacy-friendly, and they don’t store their data for their own hidden agenda.
The big question that Oppenheim rises, and he also answers, is if the behemoths of the industry, Google, and Facebook, will abide by this new policy, and if they will try to set it as a standard of quality. Oppenheim says yes, they will, considering the fact that people who use ad blocking services are on the rise, but the growth isn’t seen in US territory, only abroad.
Logically, Oppenheim will be working closely with his team at Disconnect to add the standard into their very own ad blocking app. An app that will reward publishers who abide by this policy by letting their adds roam easily to their targets.
