UPDATED 14:10 EDT / MARCH 30 2012

Yahoo! Will Support Do Not Track for All Its Projects

Yahoo said it will deploy the support of Do Not Track on all their web projects by early summer of this year to meet a growing concern with respect to user data privacy.

The company said today that the Do Not Track system was created last year in collaboration with Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). The group plans to apply the new initiative on its sites as well as sites that are carried on its Right Media advertising and interclick.

“Yahoo!’s DNT header solution has been in development since last year and is in accordance with the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) principles,” the company writes in a statement. “This site-wide DNT mechanism (to include Yahoo! owned Right Media and interclick) will provide a simple step for consumers to express their ad targeting preferences to Yahoo!.”

The Do Not Track system gained popularity in the U.S. where the Federal Communications Commission earlier this week issued guidelines for private operators of personal data, in particular the major Internet companies, to implement practices that provided a Do Not Tack mechanism. The Commission is also urging Congress to ratify the legislative at the systems level.

Earlier this year, a coalition of Internet companies, including Microsoft, Google and others, agreed to support do-not-track technology in most modern browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, though Internet companies initially were opposed.

The question on the amount of user data an Internet company can collect has become a hot topic in both Europe and the United States.  Previously, all the major Internet companies, including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and others were accused of gathering too much information about their users, as well as the transfer of these data to third-party beneficiaries, including advertising agencies.

Facebook in particular facing scrutiny on their statement of rights and responsibilities, which doesn’t provide clear guidelines on privacy.

Much has been said about Do Not Track, a technology that offers the ability to block cookie tracking, which are often used to optimize display ads and to gain other marketing metrics. The new system around do-not-track does not stop the collection of data; it is more so a moral code, getting the company to agree not to collect data on the habits of users who do not customize the advertising for them.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU