Google Chrome to Get ‘Do Not Track’
Google Chrome soon will support Do Not Track (DNT), a Web browser privacy setting that lets users tell online advertising companies whether they want to receive tracking cookies used to target online ads.
Support for DNT has been implemented in Chromium version 23.0.1266.0, as of build 156627. Google Chrome, which incorporates the open-source Chromium code, has yet to add DNT to its developer channel, however.
Proposed by security researchers and software engineers in 2009, DNT first appeared in Mozilla’s Firefox browser and subsequently in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, and Opera.
Google had been offering something similar in the form of a Chrome plug-in called Keep My Opt-Outs, but remained unenthusiastic about DNT. If widely adopted, DNT has the potential to reduce Google’s ad revenue. But only a few companies, such as Twitter, are doing anything when they receive DNT preference information from browsers.
In February, facing growing pressure for action on privacy, Google announced an agreement between online advertising companies, the White House, and the Federal Trade Commission to support the Digital Advertising Alliance principles, a self-regulatory framework that includes DNT.