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Comment by proactivesvcs | Hacker News Reader

It's still an option in my modern Web browser. A site admin can choose not to track me if they wish - my software is making my wishes clear and in according to a standard.

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Worth noting that the spec was abandoned in part because enabling it actually makes you more likely to be tracked. It's another datapoint that can be used to fingerprint your device.

Another major reason that the spec was abandoned was that no one could agree on what "tracking" meant, and so what "respecting DNT" would even mean.

If there were legal basis for that header saying "let me use your website without being tracked" and the website owner having to do so, then it would be worth it to enable it - but, in practice, having it enabled becomes a fingerprint datapoint, and since 99% of traffic doesn't have it enabled, it becomes a pretty reliable one.

I leave it enabled out of the principle, and as a data point. Every person who has such a feature enabled is sending a message: we do not want to be tracked. It's a blip in the dark, but you can't stop the signal.

I'm much happier with the GDPR idea where tracking is not allowed by default and the website has to obtain informed consent first. Of course in practice the implementations still need to be improved - both through enforcement (many of the consent dialogs are not legal), through additional standards and legislation to require them (you should be able to set your browser to automatically deny all requests) and through continuing to shame companies and individuals for their excessive tracking (at least the consent dialogs tell you about the extend now).

A standard that practically no one cares about and is actually used by others as another flag to identify you since most people don't have it turned on. Ideology is great but on the web some of us choose to be pragmatic.

Nah. People who use certain browsers are sending DNT by default and do not even know it is the case or even what is means.

That behaviour is certainly not software making their wishes clear in the matter.

I think if you'd ask most people if they want to be tracked they'd say no. Of course you could word things differently or promise benefits to manipulate the answers, but just for "do you want to be tracked" the answer will typicall be NO - and some more progressive privacy laws like the GDPR recognize that by making no tracking the default.

Setting DNT to true by default is certainly more in line with user's wishes than the previous assumption by the tech industry to just grab whatever info they can.

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