Firefox browser to move ahead with ‘Do Not Track’ option [View all]

[The Straight Story]

The maker of the popular Firefox browser is moving ahead with plans to block the most common forms of Internet tracking, allowing hundreds of millions of users to limit who watches their movements across the Web, company officials said Wednesday.

The decision comes despite intense resistance from advertising groups, which have argued that tracking is essential to delivering well-targeted, lucrative ads that pay for many popular Internet services. When Firefox’s maker, Mozilla, first publicly suggested that it might limit blocking in February, one advertising executive called it “a nuclear first strike” against the industry.

Widespread release of the blocking technology remains months away, but Mozilla officials spoke confidently on Wednesday about the growing sophistication of tools they are building to limit the placement of “cookies” in the browsers of individual users.

These bits of code, often placed by data collection companies users have never heard of, allow the companies to learn what sites the browser visits for many months or even years. Tracking would still be allowed by Firefox if users gave a Web site express permission, or if users visited regularly — as is common with shopping, social media or news sites.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/firefox-browser-to-move-ahead-with-do-not-track/2013/06/19/b0ad618c-d8f6-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html