To track, or “Do Not Track”: that is the question.

Internet privacy is a rising concern in today’s world. There seems to be a dichotomy between those who seek to end privacy, such as the governments of countries on the Reporters Without Borders’ ‘Enemies of the Internet’ list [1] employing far reaching Internet censorship and surveillance techniques, and those who uphold privacy, such as netizens who protest invasive policies like the proposed Bill C-30 and Google’s Privacy policy. On the less extreme side of this debate is the issue of whether businesses should track your activities on their websites. While on one hand, Internet companies argue that doing this allows them to provide their customers with more personalized service, on the other hand Internet users complain that this practice increases the risk of privacy invasion and identity theft.

A good solution to this problem is that businesses voluntarily adopt the Do Not Track technology in their websites. This smart fix is a HTML header that can be sent out by users’s web browsers when they visit a website. The proprietor of the website need only include support for this header on the HTTP server and desist tracking procedures for any customer who sends out the ‘Do Not Track’ header. As of now, this technology is included in many major browsers, however there are precious few websites on the Internet that recognize this header and there is no mechanism for ensuring that businesses respect their users’ wishes with regards to tracking. Proponents of Internet privacy may be glad to know that, due to proposed new privacy legislation in the USA, many more businesses may choose to adopt Do Not Track [2].

While netizens and politicians alike call for more privacy on the internet, the consequences of this is not often considered [3]. More privacy means that businesses have less information about their users, which, in turn, means that they aren’t able to offer advertisers effective targeted ad services. Therefore, companies suffer in terms of revenue because they aren’t able to claim the usual premiums for personalized ads. This may prompt Internet businesses to start charging for their products and services, which may also reduce demand for them. Without demand, companies may be forced to stop offering their products at all, thus leading to less content and reduced functionality for the Internet. In the free web service culture that exists today, one can only imagine with horror a future where one must pay for e-mail accounts, search engine use, collaborative document processing, social networking and access to web videos.

Thus, it seems that those who value their privacy online are at an impasse with Internet advertising companies. We are asked to make a choice between our privacy, which we have a right to, or free services on the web. Which will you choose?

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/10/do-not-track_n_1336380.html?ref=technology
[2] http://en.rsf.org/
[3] http://lauren.vortex.com/do-not-track-white-paper-04-30-2011.html