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

* Roy T. Fielding wrote:
>In other words, we are setting up the situation where the
>mechanism will be implemented according to our standard but
>the regulations will be implemented according to the user's
>expectations -- nullifying our standard in the process.

A user might be okay with a web site setting a cookie to track all the
pages the user visits on the site, but may not be okay with the site
collecting information on how much time he spends reading some article,
which parts of a text he selects and copies to the clipboard, how many
characters per second he types into the search box, whether he uses
keyboard keys to scroll or scroll bars or the mouse wheel; he might not
mind the site to learn his screen resolution, but might mind probing
his browser to learn that he's browsing at a zoom level of 210%. They
may be okay with a site learning that he clicked some "sharing" button,
but they may not be okay with the site hooking into the stream on the
sharing site, correlate times and thus learn the user's identity on the
other service. He may not mind any of these things on a small site but
might not want some vast internet outlet that runs email, search, news,
bookmarks, and all sorts of other things to do the same.

It seems most likely to me that a "stop accumulating so much about my
online habits" preference will be repurposed to address things like the
ones listed above if there is no readily available alternative if there
is sufficient pressure. From my own perspective, if I were to run some
services that does things like those above, if the user sends a signal
like DNT, I would assume their consent to it is minimal. So I am not so
sure regulators taking over the interpretation of the signal is such a
bad thing (or, conversely, that the working group should seek to avoid
rather than support or be ambivalent towards this).

(www-archive only as the WG discussion is moving in other directions.)
-- 
Björn Höhrmann · mailto:bjoern@hoehrmann.de · http://bjoern.hoehrmann.de
Am Badedeich 7 · Telefon: +49(0)160/4415681 · http://www.bjoernsworld.de
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Received on Thursday, 13 October 2011 22:20:58 UTC