Re: ISSUE-5: What is the definition of tracking?

On Oct 22, 2011, at 11:52 , JC Cannon wrote:

> I brought the idea up during early discussions about having multiple DNT values, (don't track, don't target, DNT for non-trusted sites), but there were concerns that the complexity would confuse consumers or multiple values would water down DNT. I feel consumers should always have choice when it comes to their privacy and it is up to industry to make controls easy to find, use and understand.

I agree;  I think intuitive understanding is very important here.  And I think that people's intuitive sense of 'tracking' is 'following me around, taking notes of everywhere I go, everything I do, everything I look at, and everything I buy'.  That's creepy in real life, and is creepy on the internet.

One of the things that I have learned about humans and risk etc., is that people get freaked when something is involuntary, and invisible/intangible, and with unknown consequences.  Radiation exposure is the classic one that pushes all those buttons.  I think internet tracking comes quite close as well, unfortunately.

> 
> JC
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-tracking-request@w3.org [mailto:public-tracking-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Karl Dubost
> Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 3:45 PM
> To: Brett Error
> Cc: Bjoern Hoehrmann; Aleecia M. McDonald; public-tracking@w3.org
> Subject: Re: ISSUE-5: What is the definition of tracking?
> 
> 
> Le 12 oct. 2011 à 21:02, Brett Error a écrit :
>> The urge to define "tracking" stems from the concern that  "do not track" sounds like it will forbid all tracking.
> 
> Part of the issue comes from the binary choice "DO/DO NOT" when most privacy issues are not related to binary choices but to fuzzy logic. So maybe the question is not about tracking or not tracking but about the specific actions which are allowed in the context of a header, preference, etc.
> 
> -- 
> Karl Dubost - http://dev.opera.com/
> Developer Relations & Tools, Opera Software
> 
> 
> 
> 

David Singer
Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.

Received on Saturday, 22 October 2011 22:39:28 UTC