The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is responsible for ensuring that web technology is based on an agreed set of technical standards, has been working on developing a new ‘do not track’ (DNT) controls system for operation within web browser settings. It has said that the controls should not to be set by default. Instead, internet users would have to provide their “explicit consent” to activate them.
Jonathan Mayer of Stanford University, who has been working on the new standard, said that W3C had worked on a “compromise proposal” which would prohibit online publishers using cookies to track their users’ online activity once those users had enabled the DNT option. However, “affiliate information sharing” about users can continue even once DNT controls have been activated, Mayer said.
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