Review Request: GUI configuration for the 'Do Not Track'?feature...

[Oswald Buddenhagen]

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 09:00:11PM +0200, Ingo Klöcker wrote:
> On Friday 15 April 2011, Oswald Buddenhagen wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 09:24:47AM -0400, Dawit Alemayehu wrote:
> > > The configuration option is there to allow the user to opt-in if
> > > they so choose.
> > 
> > that's not a very wise default. if too many people will use it (*),
> > the data miners will just ignore the standard, based on the rightful
> > claim that most people didn't even explicitly say they don't want to
> > be tracked.
> 
> Sorry, but this argumentation is ridiculous. Bad data miners will ignore 
> the standard no matter what.
> 
that's besides the point.
data mining is their business. with that flag on, there is no business.
the only way to make them respect user privacy is either law or just
making the opt-out share small enough that they don't care too much. if
you default to opt-out, you give them the perfect excuse for ignoring
it.

> > if you want to encourage people to make use of this privacy
> > protection mechanism, you should pop up a dialog if no preference
> > has been configured yet.
> 
> You do realize that people do not read dialogs? Most users will have
> no clue what the dialog is talking about and just click Yes.
>
do you realize that most people honestly couldn't care less? and they
don't deserve better. let them enjoy their "free" internet.

fwiw, the firefox 4 default is opt-in. and for some reason the setting
isn't even under "privacy", but under "advanced".