There’s been some talk recently of a “Do Not Track” list being started. It seems that some privacy groups feel that the tracking that some companies do online is unfair to consumers and that they should be allowed to opt out of it. They compare it to the “do not call” list.

But an article in Business Week points out how this could backfire. Tracking is one of the big ways companies best function online. Without it, they feel that many companies would choose to show more ads to make up the revenue lost because they couldn’t show targeted ads.

But I don’t know that legislation or a list is the way to go. First of all, how are sites to determine that you are on the list and don’t want to be tracked? That’s personal information you’d have to share, right from the start.

Software solutions implemented by individual users make a lot of sense, although I often feel these can be overkill and can be unfair to the webmaster. I equate it to removing all the ads from a magazine. Yes some sites go very much overboard on ads, especially annoying, flashing ones, but many others rely on a few, well placed ads to get by. But if you’re concerned about your privacy, something magazine ads have no access too, what choice do you have?

This is a very tangled issue. Tracking allows for a lot of personalization and many people love it. It makes it easier for sites to offer free content. But the concern that there is too little control over that information is very real.

Given the complexity of trying to figure out who could and could not be tracked on a site, I would say it makes far more sense to leave it to the software on the user’s computer than to have a list. Then if necessary regulate how private information can be used. Limitations can be reasonable, but they can also be harmful to how many websites survive and function.

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