My thanks goes to Twitter for highlighting their support for Do Not Track (DNT) in their latest product and policy updates email I received today. I was not actually aware of DNT until today, which turns out to be a privacy preference that users can set in their web browsers.
Twitter supports “Do Not Track”
When you turn on DNT in your browser, we stop collecting the information that allows us to tailor suggestions based on your recent visits to websites that have integrated our buttons or widgets. We also stop collecting the information that allows us to tailor ads based on your visits to our ad partners’ websites. Specifically, we stop collecting the unique browser cookie that links your browser to visits to these websites for tailoring suggestions or ads.
So I guess, like with most things, DNT is really only as effective as the entities willing to acknowledge and support it. I will have to do some more research into how widely supported it is to date.
I will also have to read up on the Tracking Preference Expression (DNT) W3C Working Draft to see where the web industry standards are at. Hope it makes for some light, entertaining reading 😉