This morning WNYC had a spot on FTC’s proposed ‘Do Not Track’ tool.
Assuming that web tracking is a real problem, legislation is *not* the right solution. We should better educate Internet users about online privacy, about tools available to them.
There are several ways that individuals can already avoid tracking without government intervention. The only guaranteed way to fully “opt out” of Internet tracking by not using hosted services. For most people, this is not a viable option.
Assuming you are fear tracking at several levels, there is a range of free tools available now to avoid tracking.
- BROWSER TRACKING: Use Chrome and the Incognito feature. A new Incognito window explains “Pages you view in this window won’t appear in your browser history or search history, and they won’t leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window.” I’m not sure how/if plug-ins like Adobe’s Flash Player are sandboxed so this may not be 100% tracker-free. More on this after I take a deeper look.
- ISP TRACKING: Use Tor, a free tool for anonymous browsing.
- EMAIL PRIVACY: Use a mail client that supports the OpenPGP standard. Encrypt all messages.
- ONLINE SERVICES: Don’t post private stuff online. Duh.
Educate, don’t legislate.