Re: ISSUE-5: definition of tracking

Roy,

Perhaps I'm remarkably dense today.  I'm not sure I understand the distinction between David's definition and what you propose below. Could  please explain a little more?
John


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John M. Simpson
Consumer Advocate
Consumer Watchdog
2701 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 112
Santa Monica, CA,90405
Tel: 310-392-7041
Cell: 310-292-1902
www.ConsumerWatchdog.org
john@consumerwatchdog.org

On Sep 4, 2012, at 3:20 PM, Roy T. Fielding wrote:

> On Sep 4, 2012, at 10:07 AM, Aleecia M. McDonald wrote:
> 
>>  (c) Buried in this discussion (of "absolutely not tracking") was David Singer's attempt to define tracking: "Tracking is the retention or use, after a transaction is complete, of data records that are, or can be, associated with a single user." (I'd append: ", user agent, or device.")   Unlike every other time someone has made the attempt, the one and only reply was in support. Does that mean we can live with this? [Note that issue-5 is currently raised]
> 
> Probably not.  It does us very little good to define tracking such
> that it encompasses all access logs, since they are essential
> to any site that isn't deliberately acting as an open gateway.
> Are we agreed to that at least?
> 
> If so, as Shane has said a few million times, the definition of
> tracking has to reflect actively tracking the user/device
> (operational use of the data collected).  Additional restrictions
> on the retention of data for specific and necessary purposes can
> also be required for compliance, but that doesn't need to be
> reflected in the definition of "Do Not Track".
> 
> A variation on David's definition would be:
> 
>  Tracking is the retention or sharing of data collected from an
>  interaction to associate that interaction with a specific user
>  (or their personal user agent or device) and use that association
>  to obtain, collect, or correlate that user's behavior beyond
>  the scope of a single session.
> 
> Note, however, that this still doesn't reflect the distinction between
> first-party tracking and third-party tracking.  We need guidance in the
> spec for UA configuration, such that the options reflect the truth.
> For example, Firefox's config says:
> 
>  [√] Tell websites I do not want to be tracked
> 
> whereas the compliance spec (and our consensus so far) would suggest
> 
>  [√] Tell websites I do not want to be tracked by third parties
> 
> or
> 
>  [√] Enable "Do Not Track"
>      [√] Tell websites I do not want to be tracked by third parties
>      [ ] Tell websites it is okay for third parties to track me
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> ....Roy