Microsoft's "do not track" browser proposal got a boost Thursday when the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards body, gave Microsoft's plan its stamp of approval.
The W3C has accepted and published Microsoft's submission, which W3C called "timely and well-aligned with the consortium's objectives and priorities." An official announcement is expected in early March, and W3C will hold a workshop at Princeton University on April 28 and 29 to assess whether W3C should proceed with more work in this area.
Microsoft Tracking Protection was included in the release candidate of Internet Explorer 9, which was announced earlier this month. At the launch event for the RC, Microsoft also announced four partners for Tracking Protection: Abine, TRUSTe, PrivacyChoice, and AdBlock Plus. These firms will provide lists of sites that plant small tracking code on many other Web sites to profile users' site history and habits. The Tracking Protection feature in IE9, which was first introduced in December, will allow users to block this snooping by either using one of these lists or automatically determining the offending Web domains.
W3C noted that while the technology behind "do not track" options is relatively simple, defining the real meaning of "track" for a global Internet is a complex issue.
"The privacy concerns from consumers and academics and governments world-wide have both technical and non-technical aspects. Addressing these concerns will involve technology," Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president for IE, wrote in a blog post. "The W3C's involvement provides the best forum possible for that technology discussion. Just as the community has worked together at the W3C on interoperable HTML5, we can now work together on an interoperable (or universal, to use the FTC privacy report's term) way to help protect consumers' privacy."
The feature is in response to the FTC's call for a Web equivalent to the Do Not Call list that addresses telemarketer harassment. In the wake of the FTC's report, Google and Mozilla have also introduced varying "do not track" options for their respective browsers.
Earlier this month, Rep. Jackie Speier introduced the Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011, which would give the FTC 18 months to come up with standards for companies to follow when it comes to online tracking.