In its June release of Windows 8, Internet Explorer 10, Microsoft included a Do Not Track feature that is on by default, meaning that consumers have to actually opt-in to targeted advertising, otherwise websites they visit are not supposed to track and collect their personal information for targeted ad/marketing.
This move was considered bad faith by the Digital Advertising Alliance, of which Microsoft is a member, as it pre-empts an industry-wide solution under development by the Alliance. DAA hopes to keep a self-regulating system in place regarding internet user privacy agreements to avoid government regulation that could bring privacy laws that would undercut the growing digital ad market and revenues. It appeared that DAA would be able to negotiate an industry-wide user opt-out based solution to present to congress and that regulators were regarding this favorably. Microsoft's new opt-in platform embedded in IE 10 is a disruptive break from the ranks which focused on government acceptance of an industry-wide user tracking opt-out standard.
"A default 'Do Not Track' mechanism is bad for consumers and the Internet economy. It deviates from widely-accepted responsible industry practices and undercuts consumer choice," says said Linda Woolley, acting president and CEO of the Direct Marketing Association, a member of the DAA. " Bloggers and Tweeters like Christopher Soghoian a security and privacy researcher have likened Micosoft's move as, "going for the jugular - Google's ad revenue," as he tweeted, given that Google's ad business, like just most digital advertising, depends on tracking data for ad targeting.
Companies speculate that they may not have to honor the IE 10 user opt-out and are expected to ignore it and track browser user data. This is because Microsofts DNT default would make it out of compliance with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the organization charged with issuing official web standards which has adopted the opt-out standard with endorsement by the FTC.
However, some policy analysts point out that even so, it's ultimately at the discretion of the FTC to determine whether or not ignoring IE10's Do Not Track requests constitutes using someone's personal information without their permission, and their right to protect their personal info.
Other analysts say either way, the number of IE users who will upgrade to this do not track version of IE10 may not be significant enough to disrupt the ad market and revenues at this point, but that even so, the move signals coming changes in the digital marketing arena.
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