- From: Dan Auerbach <dan@eff.org>
- Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:04:41 -0700
- To: public-tracking@w3.org
- Message-ID: <50785BB9.70205@eff.org>
Hi everyone, There has been a lot of discussion on this list about user agents respecting user preference when it comes to setting DNT:1. As a temperature check, I want to make sure we have consensus about the compliance of a "forced user choice" implementation of DNT. For example, a browser during the installation process would have a screen with three radio buttons, none of which are selected, which respectively denote "turn DNT on", "turn DNT off", and "I do not wish to make a selection regarding DNT". In order to proceed, the user would have to make a selection, and nothing would be selected by default. This implementation could appear in the installation process, or, say, as a splash screen that the user must get through after a browser update. I want to keep this question extremely focused. Let's please not bring up any tangential conversations regarding the merits or drawbacks of such an implementation related to user experience. That is up to the browser vendor, and various vendors may have views on the subject, but that it not the question at hand. Second, we could discuss the text that appears besides the radio buttons, or how and if there is a link to more information. But I'd like to sidestep that question for now. Assuming there exists _some_ text that is acceptable to you, then assume that text for the purposes of this question. I think it is important to make sure we have consensus on this issue. If I were an ad network, from a business perspective I think I would care much more about the rate of adoption of DNT:1, instead of respecting user preference. As such, I might object to a "forced choice" implementation since some studies would suggest it would lead to quite a high uptick in DNT:1 being set by users (e.g. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2152135). But so far I haven't heard anyone in the group express that sentiment, and the conversation has centered around respecting user preference. I want to by crystal clear that this commitment to user choice is the view of everyone in this working group, and that there are no objections to forced choice user agent implementations of DNT, modulo arguments about the text. Dan -- Dan Auerbach Staff Technologist Electronic Frontier Foundation dan@eff.org 415 436 9333 x134
Received on Friday, 12 October 2012 23:25:27 UTC