Moving forward with its own version of do-not-track, Microsoft today is releasing a new privacy feature in IE9 aimed at allowing users to block ads served by behavioral-targeting companies.
The browser's new tracking protection function allows users to create lists of servers to block or allow. When ad networks (and other companies) appear on users' blacklists, IE9 will prevent those
entities from appearing as third parties on publishers' sites. The tracking protection feature only blocks third parties, meaning that the browser will not prevent publishers from serving their own
ads, but could prevent ads powered by an outside company from appearing.
Ad networks and others on an approved list will be allowed to appear as third parties. If the same ad network appears on
both lists, the white list will trump the blacklist and the ad will be served. The browser itself will not compile the block or approve lists. Rather, consumers can obtain such lists from privacy
organizations, or can create their own. At launch, the groups offering tracking protection lists include TRUSTe, Abine, and Privacy Choice.
Those organizations are taking different approaches to
determining which of the 300 estimated ad networks to include on the blacklists.
TRUSTe CEO Chris Babel says at launch, companies that participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance's
self-regulatory program (or that TRUSTe works with independently) will appear on TRUSTe's approved list. The DAA requires behavioral-advertising companies to use an icon to notify consumers about
tracking and also allow them to opt out. TRUSTe, DoubleVerify and Evidon currently provide those icons.
TRUSTe is not planning to include any companies on its blacklist at launch. Instead, the
organization will give the companies that don't participate in the DAA's program 30 days to come into compliance. If they don't, TRUSTe will place them on its block list, Babel says.
By contrast,
Abine intends to include all ad networks involved in behavioral advertising on the block list, says co-founder Rob Shavell.
Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome also offer versions of do-not-track, but neither companies' browsers block ads. Instead,
Mozilla this week began offering users the ability to enable a do-not-track header. That header notifies ad networks that users don't want to be tracked, but the networks are free to decide whether to
respect users' preferences. Chrome offers a "Keep My Opt-Outs" that allows users to permanently express a preference to opt out of online tracking and ad targeting by companies that participate in the
self-regulatory program.
Microsoft's new tool has drawn far more controversy than the other browser-based no-tracking features. The Interactive Advertising Bureau calls it a "content blocker,"
noting that the feature can prevent any entities on a blacklist -- editorial companies as well as ad networks -- from displaying material.
"We're not supportive of a content blocking tool," says
IAB general counsel Mike Zaneis. "Anybody can create a block list, and I don't think consumers understand what they're going to be downloading."
But Jules Polonetsky, co-chair and director of the
industry-funded think tank Future for Privacy Forum, calls the new feature "a powerful tool for Web surfers that want a higher level of control over Web tracking."
He adds that the three
browser-based tools "address goals of do-not-track proposals more effectively than legislation could do."