The Do Not Track (DNT) header is the proposed HTTP header field DNT that requests that a web application disable either itstracking or cross-site user tracking (the ambiguity remains unresolved) of an individual user. The Do Not Track header was originally proposed in 2009 by researchers Christopher Soghoian, Sid Stamm, and Dan Kaminsky. It is currently being standardized by the W3C.
In December 2010, Microsoft announced support for the DNT mechanism in its Internet Explorer 9 web browser. Mozilla's Firefox became the first browser to implement the feature,while Internet Explorer, Apple's Safari, Opera and Google Chrome all later added support.
The header field name is DNT and it currently accepts three values: 1 in case the user does not want to be tracked (opt out), 0 in case the user consents to being tracked (opt in), or null (no header sent) if the user has not expressed a preference.The default behavior is to not send the header, until the user chooses to enable the setting via their browser.
History
In 2007, several consumer advocacy groups asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to create a Do Not Track list for online advertising. The proposal would have required that online advertisers submit their information to the FTC, which would compile a machine-readable list of the domain names used by those companies to place cookies or otherwise track consumers In July 2009, researchers Christopher Soghoian and Sid Stamm created a prototype add-on for the Firefox web browser, implementing support for the Do Not Track header. Stamm was, at the time, a privacy engineer at Mozilla, while Soghoian soon afterward started working at the FTC. One year later, during a U.S. Senate privacy hearing, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz told the Senate Commerce Committee that the commission was exploring the idea of proposing a "do-not-track" list.
In December 2010, the FTC issued a privacy report that called for a "do not track" system that would enable people to avoid having their actions monitored online. One week later, Microsoft announced that its next browser would include support for Tracking Protection Lists, that block tracking of consumers using blacklists supplied by third parties. In January 2011, Mozilla announced that its Firefox browser would soon provide a Do Not Track solution, via a browser header. Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Apple's Safari, Opera and Google Chrome all later added support for the header approach.
Operation
When a web browser requests content or sends data using HTTP, it can include extra information optionally in one or more items called "headers". Do not track adds a header (DNT: 1), indicating that the user does not want to be tracked. The execution of this non-tracking directive can only be implemented on the part of the HTTP server, so its enforcement is applied effectively using the honor system. In this regard, do not track is similar to the robots exclusion standard, which provides a mechanism for HTTP servers to communicate to automatic web-traversing client programs whether those programs are granted permission to access the servers, but entirely relies upon honor and etiquette on the part of the client for compliance
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