• ZDNet, Thursday, April 14, 2011 11:48 AM

Further complicating the lives of behavioral-happy online advertisers, Apple has added a do-not-track privacy tool to a test version of its latest Web browser. "The movement accelerated following a report released in December by the US Federal Trade Commission, urging technology makers to implement the technology into their products to protect consumer privacy," ZDNet writes. "While legislation to put some teeth on enforcing it has stalled, browser makers like Mozilla and Microsoft have released do-not-track tools in the latest versions of their browsers."

As The Wall Street Journal reports, "The move ... leaves Google Inc. as the only major browser provider that hasn't yet committed to supporting a do-no-track capability in its browser." "Google, which is heavily dependent on advertising, seems to be dragging its feet somewhat," The Inquirer writes. That said, "It has expressed interest in potentially adding a full ‘do not track' system to its browser at some point in the future, depending on industry discussions."

"The feature hasn't been rolled out to the public yet, but it has been added to Safari in the latest release of Apple's in-development operating system, Mac OS X Lion, which is currently only available for now to Apple-certified programmers," The Los Angeles Times points out.

"In some ways, Apple has been fairly unresponsive when it comes to the online privacy debate," paidContent writes. "But Apple is getting with the program, it seems, even though it's doing so quietly." Last week, a federal grand jury served subpoenas to several prominent mobile developers for Apple's iOS and Google's Android as part of an investigation into the sharing of user data with ad networks, notes AppleInsider.com.

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