Do Not Track

[Orchid]

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]

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.

 

[Pixel_]

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.

This

 

[Morro]

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]

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.

 

[Viking]

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.

I agree, So I vote no.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

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 ?

 

[Moonhorse]

I have it enabled on adguard, but after this thread i might be turning it off as it seems it does nothing

 

[oldschool]

Thanks for this discussion, so it is better to leave it off ?

Yes, since most web sites don't respect your wishes. It's a failed W3C experiment. I've never enabled it.

 

[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).

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Thanks Changed my vote (and the setting)

 

[Lightning_Brian]

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 Changed my vote (and the setting)

@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]

@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.

 

[Lightning_Brian]

Glad your doing good @Gandalf_The_Grey ! I'm doing well here too.

Yeah gotta disable it in a bunch of places for myself ha! The more we know the better now though!

 

[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]

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?

 

[piquiteco]

My vote is yes, even knowing that websites can ignore this do not track option in my browser, I leave it enabled anyway. Even if the websites ignore it I complement it with uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Nextdns, DNS, DDG and a VPN.

 

[TairikuOkami]

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.

 

[oldschool]

uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Nextdns, DNS, DDG ...

Why use Privacy Badger, DDG? These extensions are superfluous with µBO.

 

[Trident]

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.