Do Not Track

Do you use Do Not Track in your Browser

  • Yes

    Votes: 18 36.7%
  • No

    Votes: 31 63.3%

  • Total voters
    49

Orchid

Level 1
Thread author
Jan 27, 2023
43
MalwareTips Community,

First, I hope I am posting this in the right section. We all know that when you visit a website, trackers can follow you wherever you go. In 2009, Do Not Track (DNT) became the standard for all websites, and soon after, most web browsers started incorporating the setting Do Not Track.

Do Not Track is where a web header sends a signal from a user's browser to all sites (they visit), stating that the user prefers not to be tracked.

I have seen Do Not Track topics here in the past. However, how many of you turn this feature on in your web browser? Do you think DNT has its use or not? I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter. I have Do Not Track disabled. Many websites do not honor Do Not Track requests due to low adoption, and trackers can track what you do anyway despite having the DNT option enabled.

References
Do Not Track - Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
'Do Not Track,' the Privacy Tool Used by Millions of People, Doesn't Do Anything
Yahoo Stops Supporting the 'Do Not Track Privacy Setting
What you should know about Twitter’s latest privacy policy update
Apple is removing the Do Not Track toggle from Safari, but for a good reason
 

Ink

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 8, 2011
22,361
Voted No. DNT doesn't have to be honoured even if the toggle is on. It provides a false sense of privacy, because it clearly does not work.

A superior option is to use anti-tracker software, extensions or DNS to block trackers from ever reaching your browser or device.
 

Morro

Level 16
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jul 8, 2012
792
I voted No.

I did use it in the past, but then on advice from friends I started doing what Ink mentioned, " use anti-tracker software, extensions or DNS to block trackers from ever reaching your browser or device." :)
 

Kongo

Level 35
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Feb 25, 2017
2,479
As mentioned before it's not even honored by most website. The only thing it does is making you more identifiable on the internet, as most people leave it off by default. So those who enable it, are in a much smaller pool of people and therefore easier to fingerprint.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 97327

Hoping that it would do something, but relying on uBlock Origin and blocking (most) 3rd party cookies to do the work.
Thanks for this discussion, so it is better to leave it off ?
It is turned off by default and as @oldschool posted most website tracking their visitors ignore, making it cynically an extra datapoint to track people not wanted to be tracked. Without hard data, I choose eggs for my money (as we say in Dutch) and switched it off to hide in the herd and .. as you wisely said, rely on my adblocker to reduce my third-party footprint (I would also enable a filter stripping URL parameters).
 

Lightning_Brian

Level 15
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Sep 1, 2017
742
I have it enabled on adguard, but after this thread i might be turning it off as it seems it does nothing
@Moonhorse - You and me both! Yeah, I always thought Adguard would help in these situations but naw' looks like a failed experiment!

Thanks (y) Changed my vote (and the setting) :D
@Gandalf_The_Grey ! How's it going? Hope your doing good! Same here friend same here... Removed them settings and changed my vote right fast.
 

Gandalf_The_Grey

Level 76
Verified
Honorary Member
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
Apr 24, 2016
6,505
@Moonhorse - You and me both! Yeah, I always thought Adguard would help in these situations but naw' looks like a failed experiment!


@Gandalf_The_Grey ! How's it going? Hope your doing good! Same here friend same here... Removed them settings and changed my vote right fast.
All is good here, thanks, hope the same goes for you.
Disabled it on Edge on my laptop and on my Android phone.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 98186

DNT is of virtually no usefulness.

If you watch Youtube videos, use anything Google, use Windows OS or Office apps, answer CAPTHCHAs, etc - you are being tracked. If you do anything within the mainstream western financial system you are tracked. If you use helathcare services, then you are tracked. If you use licensed education software, then you are being tracked. Anything Apple or Adobe. Same. Tracked.

It is more or less a futile enterprise to try to remain private. It is practically impossible to do so. It is even more foolish to think that you can using ANY device in a normal manner. You can pile on all the extensions you want, and then use VPN or TOR, and still you will be trackable.

It is ridiculous that people keep trying to remain private digitally when it is just not possible to accomplish when using devices normally.

Privacy can be accomplished but only through a carefully crafted system and routine that takes a huge amount of effort. The result is that you can never use any system in a normal manner. It modifies the user experience completely.
 

Dave Russo

Level 21
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
May 26, 2014
1,041
Voted No. DNT doesn't have to be honoured even if the toggle is on. It provides a false sense of privacy, because it clearly does not work.

A superior option is to use anti-tracker software, extensions or DNS to block trackers from ever reaching your browser or device.
Are you willing to show me or point me to a link how to use a DNS program to block trackers from ever reaching your browser or device?
 

TairikuOkami

Level 35
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
May 13, 2017
2,452
how to use a DNS program to block trackers from ever reaching your browser or device?
DNS stops most tracking that way, you can use an extension for a cosmetic filtering. I do not use any anti-tracking extensions, just DNS and it blocks most ads and I block only tracking.
 

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Trident

Level 27
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Feb 7, 2023
1,628
Voted “no” here. The word request is enough for my choice. You can request many things in life but there is no guarantee your requests will be fulfilled. I’m a fan of more robust approaches, such as Next DNS and tracker protection in Safari.
 

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