Re: TPWG Public Comment on DNT Standard

On Mar 13, 2013, at 17:14 , Roy T. Fielding <fielding@gbiv.com> wrote:

> On Mar 13, 2013, at 1:58 AM, Walter van Holst wrote:
> 
>> On 3/12/13 4:16 PM, Elizabeth Coker wrote:
>>> Dear TPWG Members:
>>> 
>>> I want to direct everyone's attention to this WSJ article
>>> <http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324096404578354533010958940-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwMTExNDEyWj.html>
>>> that highlights the issues with "first" and "third" parties.
> 
> Actually, it doesn't.  The article is about publicly shared interests
> and how they reveal something about the users.  

Yes, agreed.  Once you click 'Like' (or do any such similar action), you know you're making a statement which will be accessible by at least the people who can see your activity.  That may be a controlled population, but it's no longer truly 'private' that you liked something (it may not be fully public either, depending on settings).

More worrying for privacy is that these buttons -- well, the sites they come from -- 'see' what you are reading, what sites you are visiting, BEFORE you even interact with them.  They could build quite a nice dossier from this -- not as good as active 'likes', but quite informative, nonetheless.

Which is why we have the 'active engagement' to convert a third to a first party -- under dnt:1 you are still mostly private at that site until you click 'like' (well, except for permitted uses, of course).

David Singer
Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.

Received on Tuesday, 19 March 2013 00:26:48 UTC