Cross-Site Tracking Preference using Do Not Track

The W3C's Tracking protection Working Group has published two working draft proposals for implementing "Do Not Track" online.

The proposals will allow users to define whether or not data about them can be collected for tracking purposes. Thus the proposals include information on how consumers express their tracking preference, and also how the websites and related systems (e.g. affiliates) will acknowledge those preferences.

Tracking Preference Expression (DNT) (W3C Working Draft 14 November 2011) describes how users express their preference and how websites indicate whether they honour such preferences. The proposal is to utilise a new HTTP request header "DNT", a machine-readable web-accessible file defining the site's tracking policy and an HTTP response header for the site to communicate its compliance with tracking preferences.

Tracking Compliance and Scope (W3C Working Draft 14 November 2011) defines the meaning of a "do not track" preference and will set out practices for websites to comply with this preference.

These are very early drafts, with many unresolved issues. W3C hopes to have adopted standards by June 2012, but in the meantime is inviting review and comment. For websites hoping to adopt and promote compliance with this proposal, now is a good time to start defining a project with a view to firming up the requirements in April 2012 when a candidate recommendation will be published. The broad requirements can be seen from the current documentation.