Twitter Announces “Do Not Track” Setting
Twitter on Thursday gave privacy advocated a big win by announced a new “Do Not Track” setting that allows users to opt out of being tracked by Twitters platform.
The plan was unveiled at an Internet Week panel in New York Thursday morning by chief technology officer for the Federal Trade Commission, Ed Felten.
Twitter also revealed the new Do Not Track button, tweeting:
“The Federal Trade Commission’s CTO, Ed Felten, just mentioned Twitter now supports Do Not Track. We applaud the FTC’s leadership on DNT.”
Users can take advantage of the Do Not Track option using any browser that already support the option. The new feature prevents Twitter from collecting information about users through the use of cookies which are typically placed on a users computer. It should be noted that the Firefox Do Not Track feature only works if websites agree to enable the feature as Twitter has done.
The announcement comes just two months after the FTC called on internet browser designers to stop allowing for the collection of sensitive user data.
In the meantime Facebook has yet to announced a Do Not Track feature option of its own.
Do you think a browser based universal “Do Not Track” feature should be released for general website use?