New Mexico Governor Susan Martinez. Image via AFP.

Stylist refuses to cut NM gov’s hair over same-sex marriage opposition

Amateur video reveals Challenger shuttle disaster

New amateur video of Challenger disaster released

Bill Maher and Craig Ferguson. Screenshot via CBS.

Santorum ‘thinks about gay sex more than Richard Simmons’

Former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), appearing on "The Daily Show." Screengrab via Comedy Central.

Feingold: 'Citizens United' corrupts

Google and Mozilla take steps to fight browser tracking

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, January 24, 2011 17:46 EST
Print
 
Topics: ♦ ♦
 

SAN FRANCISCO — Mozilla and Google on Monday took steps toward giving people more online privacy but each said hurdles remain to creating simple “Do Not Track” buttons for Web browsing software.

Mozilla proposed adding a signal to its popular Firefox browser to let users automatically ask websites not to track their online activities.

Websites would then decide whether to grant the desire or continue to gather data for purposes such as targeting Internet advertising.

Firefox users would be able to broadcast that they want to opt out of third party, advertising-based tracking by setting browsers to transmit a “Do Not Track HTTP header” with every click or page view.

“The challenge with adding this to the header is that it requires both browsers and sites to implement it to be fully effective,” Mozilla technology and privacy officer Alex Fowler acknowledged in a blog post.

“Mozilla recognizes the chicken and egg problem and we are taking the step of proposing that this feature be considered for upcoming releases of Firefox.”

Google on Monday released extension software for its Chrome browser that lets users opt out of being tracked by a growing set of companies adopting industry privacy standards regarding online advertising.

“Keep My Opt-Outs” lets people opt out of having snippets of code referred to as “cookies” installed on their computers to track online behavior for the purpose of targeting ads.

“Keep in mind that once you install the Keep My Opt-Outs extension, your experience of online ads may change,” Google product managers Sean Harvey and Rajas Moonka said in a blog post.

“You may see the same ads repeatedly on particular websites, or see ads that are less relevant to you.”

The top 15 largest US ad networks are among the more than 50 companies involved in the opt-out program. Google is among the firms that also provide an option for people to specify what types of ads they are most interested in.

“Importantly, we’ve designed the extension so that it should not otherwise interfere with your Web browsing experience or website functionality,” Harvey and Moonka said.

“This new feature gives you significant control without compromising the revenue that fuels the Web content that we all consume every day.”

California-based Google said it is working to make the feature available to Web browsers other than Chrome.

Microsoft plans to increase privacy options in the upcoming version of its popular Web browser Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), including the ability to prevent tracking by third-party websites.

The US software giant said that the new feature, “Tracking Protection,” is designed to “help consumers be in control of potential online tracking as they move around the Web.”

The tool will be built into a test version of IE9 being released this year.

IE9 users will have to be savvy enough to create lists of third-party websites that they do not want to track their behavior.

Talk of Web browser privacy enhancements comes amid moves in Washington to create “Do Not Track” mechanisms in browsers to stop online services from collecting Web surfing or ad-targeting data.

Internet Explorer is the most widely used Web browser in the United States followed by Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari.

“Technology that supports something like a ‘Do Not Track’ button is needed,” Mozilla chief executive Gary Kovacs told AFP during a recent visit to Mozilla’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. “The user needs to be in control.”

Firefox debuted in 2004 as an innovative, communally crafted open-source browser released as an option to Internet Explorer.

Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
AFP journalists cover wars, conflicts, politics, science, health, the environment, technology, fashion, entertainment, the offbeat, sports and a whole lot more in text, photographs, video, graphics and online.
Share this story >>
Print
 
 
 
By commenting, you agree to our terms of service
and to abide by our commenting policy.
 
  • Anonymous

    yeah, hey RAW, I’ll opt our of all of the NEWSMAX ads on your site, thank you very much.

  • Anonymous

    yeah, hey RAW, I’ll opt our of all of the NEWSMAX ads on your site, thank you very much.

  • Cussin’ Jack
  • Cussin’ Jack
  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PCHLMPBJKYTW3LJBHZEZMO3TXQ What Ever

    Taco works great for blocking tracking as does Ghosterly. Tracking is like somebody opening your snail mail so they can target junk mail to your address. That button will be like the “do not call” list that is routinely disregarded.

  • http://topsy.com/www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/google-mozilla-do-track-steps/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention Google and Mozilla take steps to fight browser tracking | Raw Story — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by domolibera, John Ito and US Reality Check , United States Agenda. United States Agenda said: Google and Mozilla take steps to fight browser tracking: SAN FRANCISCO — Mozilla and Google on Monday took steps… http://bit.ly/gmj8OL [...]

  • Anonymous

    I can see why ( IS ) this would ( DICK ) concern a ( CHENEY ) lot ( DEAD ) of ( YET ? ) people.

  • Anonymous

    Firefox Rules! The latest beta is great! If you use Chrome, probably because of the smaller interface and faster startup, give the Firefox beta a try! It has vastly improved in these areas.
    Download Firefox 4 Beta 9: http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-4.0b9&os=win&lang=en-US

    And as always, NEVER USE INTERNET EXPLORER. Its continued refusal to use industry standards makes the internet look like crap. Also, it is a fatal security threat. This will not change, and so it must be avoided at all costs. More info: http://www.google.com/search?q=ie+sucks

  • Anonymous

    RawStory looks a million times better with AdBlock. Don’t worry about depriving them of ad revenue, for every person using adblock there is at least 50 that are too stupid to even know such a thing exists.

  • Anonymous

    Thank you Firefox for trying to protect our privacy

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QGDEUMP2CWGOUHNGTPUA2JQOGI Buster

    According to Ghostery, there 11 trackers on this page alone.

  • Johnny Warbucks

    In the grand scheme of things, this is the least of our worries.

  • Anonymous

    You mean the adds of the places I visit won’t be along side the page? I sure will miss the prices on bowling balls, turntables, snuggies, boot driers and shovels.

  • Anonymous

    You mean the adds of the places I visit won’t be along side the page? I sure will miss the prices on bowling balls, turntables, snuggies, boot driers and shovels.

  • Anonymous

    Plus the two mormons knocking on your door.

  • Anonymous

    Plus the two mormons knocking on your door.

  • Anonymous

    Be brave, use linux Ubuntu…..

  • Anonymous

    Be brave, use linux Ubuntu…..

  • Anonymous

    I eat them all the time when I use the “internets” and people still send me crap for penis-pills. Soft or hard shelled?

  • Anonymous

    I eat them all the time when I use the “internets” and people still send me crap for penis-pills. Soft or hard shelled?

  • Anonymous

    What? Now I have to use a Gopher. My dog won’t even fetch my email.

  • Anonymous

    What? Now I have to use a Gopher. My dog won’t even fetch my email.

  • Anonymous

    ……(shit he found out!)

  • Anonymous

    ……(shit he found out!)

  • http://my.care2.com/gilligan13 insaneredneck

    Do not opt out of the newsmax ads,click on them and they will have to pay Raw Story for it,I always click on Reich wing ads I see on web sites,it gives me a good feeling knowing their money is going to support things they hate.

  • Anonymous

    So you can “opt out” at every page , and they can “choose” to let you ? Or not ? Ain’t technology great !

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FG7EFSDZ4LVCKRBTDV55W6ME5Q Jerry

    I wouldn’t mind targeted ads. But after more than a decade on the Web, I see virtually no ads related to my interests, not even reflecting my surfing habits. I don’t think they’re using the info for ads; it’s going to other purposes.

  • Anonymous

    Not so much, because this is part of the war now being fought over the internet. We do not want to hook up to Big Brother. I want to filter my government out and erase anything that would interest them.

  • Winski

    And Microshaft wants the user to create a list?? These people in Redmond really need a bath…

  • http://browser.webuda.com/?p=1514 Google and Mozilla take steps to fight browser tracking | Raw Story | Browser

    [...] reading here: Google and Mozilla take steps to fight browser tracking | Raw Story This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged being-tracked, chrome, companies-adopting, [...]

  • Johnny Warbucks

    We have no economy. With it went our jobs, our homes, our healthcare, our retirement. Still, we have to pay taxes to feed the war machine and donate our children to get killed for the cause. We are being sexually molested at airports, spied on thru walls, phones, GPS, internet. We have drones flying overhead and cops using technology that allows them to process & store information on thousands of license plates thru a multi-national database that includes that of the FBI. Full blown Fascism is all of about 2 steps away. Mother Nature is unleashing her wrath upon because of the way we’ve raped her.

    I’d say this is not our biggest problem.but I could be wrong.

  • http://www.worldspinner.us/mozilla World Spinner

    Google and Mozilla take steps to fight browser tracking | Raw Story…

    Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……