Do Not Track was an effort years ago to get web publishers and online sellers to implement a voluntary protocol that let visitors opt out of personal data sharing, and notified them when they did so. All web browsers support it, but the publishers and online sellers themselves opted out of the program. Now some of the same groups have created the Global Privacy Control (GPC), a protocol that focuses more narrowly on letting website visitors opt out of the sale of their personal data to third parties for commerce purposes.
The coalition includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Firefox creator Mozilla, as well as major publishers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. Where it may succeed this time is in the context of the passage of consumer data privacy acts GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California in recent years. Rob Shavell, CEO of Abine, who was involved in Do Not Track and is also a participating member in GPC, discusses the prospects, what’s ahead and why merchants should get on board.
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