Top admen beg Microsoft to switch off 'Do Not Track' in IE 10

Microsoft is in hot water with big-brand advertisers over its implementation of Do-Not-Track by default in the latest iteration of its Internet Explorer browser. The ad-slingers say Internet Explorer 10’s Do-Not-Track feature will hurt advertisers, consumers and competition.
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has published an open letter to Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer, senior vice president and general counsel Brad Smith and chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie opposing the fact DNT will be turned on by default in Windows 8’s browser.


The letter comes less than a month before Windows 8 is due to be released to the public on new PCs and tablets.

Rest of story here:


Another situation where I can understand both sides.

 

[omnius]

No sympathy for the advertisers. I remember the old days when they had to use plain old banner ads without a truckload of embedded code in order to advertise. As far as I'm concerned they can return to those days, they don't need to datamine my surfing habits any more than the sales clerk in one mall store needs to follow me around the mall to see where else I'm shopping.

 

[MaxPower2003]

Interesting to note; online ads are one of the ways viruses and malware are spread. The Minecraft Wiki had this at the top of their page today:

Earlier today Curse was notified by Google that there was a script known to be malicious being served though some of our sites. Upon further inspection Curse has determined the script was being served through ad placements from a 3rd party. These ads were being served as they normally would; however, due to a security breach at the 3rd party, a malicious JS was being served that was put in their passback system.

Another reason why I don't allow any scripts to run on my web pages while I surf unless I know I absolutely need them.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Thanks for the heads up, MaxPower2003. Good to know.