Re: [projectvrm] DNT question

[Henri Asseily < >]

And never forget that DNT isn't just about cookies. You can determine with a 
high degree of confidence the person hitting your site by triangulating the 
IP address, browser UserAgent string and Accept headers. Those have a very 
very high degree of uniqueness.
So DNT should really mean "DO NOT TRACK", not just "don't do tracking 
cookies".

--
Henri Asseily
henri.tel

On Aug 8, 2012, at 8:52 PM, John Wunderlich wrote:

> Jim;
> 
> I think the DNT question is less technical and more political. The issue at 
> hand is whether DNT should be turned on by default. As currently proposed, 
> if I understand it correctly, DNT is a notice to the web site that activity 
> should not be tracked. It doesn't actually implement any technical blocks. 
> But by turning it on by default, Microsoft is implementing what might be 
> called a form of 'Privacy by Design'. Since so much of the 'free' Internet 
> depends on users being the product, with advertisors and data aggregators 
> as customers, this challenges the business model of a number of companies, 
> not least of which is Google. One therefore assumes that the Chrome browser 
> will not take the same approach, and this might lead to an interesting 
> market test of peoples' interest in privacy.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 2012-08-08, at 11:30 AM, Jim Bursch wrote:
> 
>> I haven't been paying close attention to the DNT discussion, so this may 
>> be a dumb question. It's also more of a technical question.
>> 
>> Isn't tracking a function of cookies? So, killing cookies will kill 
>> tracking. Am I wrong?
>> 
>> If I routinely and frequently delete cookies, I am performing my own DNT 
>> -- is that correct?
>> 
>> I have started doing that, but it is inconvenient mainly because of the 
>> poor choices for cookie management, which is a browser problem.
>> 
>> Again, if I am correct that tracking is a cookie management problem, here 
>> is what I would want in a cookie management system:
>> 
>> 1. Clear, standard descriptions of the purpose of a given cookie. I want 
>> to know if it is a tracking cookie, or an authentication cookie, or a data 
>> storage cookie, etc. Right now I can only guess at the purpose of a 
>> cookie, given its content.
>> 
>> 2. I want to be able to flag cookies that I would like to keep (e.g. 
>> authentication so I don't have to repeat login), and flag cookies that I 
>> don't want (e.g. tracking cookies).
>> 
>> 3. I want to be able to create different rules for how different cookies 
>> are handled, based on their function/purpose -- e.g. keep cookies I like, 
>> delete cookies I don't want automatically.
>> 
>> It seems to me that the cookie management system would be a simple browser 
>> plugin in the short term. The problem would be establishing a protocol for 
>> cookie meta data (type, function, purpose, etc.)
>> 
>> Am I over-simplifying?
>> 
>> 
>> Jim Bursch
>> 310-869-5340
>> 
 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>