The worst part about the DNT header was the requirement for the tracking companies to regulate themselves. Initially, the header was opt-in, but with the introduction of IE10, Microsoft decided that the option was going to be opt-out. Once the the DNT header was gaining traction and a not-so-small percentage of people began sending the header, the companies had no reason to comply, and the initiative sorta fell out of favor.<p>For blocking tracking, the most effective tools are browser extensions made to block ads. Ghostery provides comparisons on an non-biased website between the methods of blocking tracking through browser modifications [1]. According to the site, the Do Not Track header actually has an effect with a difference of 18% in cookie size when the header is set. AdBlock Edge and disabling third-party cookies results in a 59% and 40% decrease in cookie size respectively. It seems that the easiest thing you can do to lessen your internet footprint would be to disable third-party cookies and enable the DNT header, and the majority of tracking can be eliminated through the use of a browser extension. (But with the recent revelations [2], using a browser extension may actually reduce your browsing experience if you don't have the RAM to spare.)<p>[1] <a href="http://www.areweprivateyet.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.areweprivateyet.com/</a>
[2] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8802424" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8802424</a>
DNT was essentially dead quite a while ago.<p>If we are goign to get something like Do Not Track, then it should have been drafted out of the public eye, had a nice short period for public comment and then recieved some sort of backing in law. Speculative implementations didn't really help.<p>I'm not too familiar with the laws surrounding things like 'do not call' lists and anti-spam measures, but some sort of system from that area of law could surely have been a part of DNT.
It never made sense in the first place. It was an opt-in, voluntary restriction that destroys all of advertisers' supposed value with no legal consequences if they ignore it.<p>The only real solution is client-side, and we have that technology now: hosts-blocking, Ghostery, AdBlock, etc. If enough people cared, it could be enabled by default on new browser installs.
It was a weak idea from the start. If you trust advertising companies to do what they say, then there's already an opt-out tracking system: <a href="http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/" rel="nofollow">http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/</a> The bad actors (particularly ones not based in the US) were going to ignore DNT anyway.<p>Now, granted, it's technically far inferior to a DNT header (it sets a cookie on each ad network domain) but as far as I can tell it works and has worked for years.
I don't trust anyone to respect my Do Not Track settings.<p>Rather what I do is to blackhole the analytics servers with my /etc/hosts:<p><pre><code> 127.0.0.1 www.googleanalytics.com
127.0.0.1 www.heapanalytics.com
</code></pre>
Unfortunately one must jailbreak mobile devices to get at their hosts files. I understand that Windows no longer uses it at all.<p>Better would be to block the analytics services at the router, or preload a caching DNS server with them.<p>I also avoid "Log In With Facebook" &c. I don't register at a site unless it offers its own login facility.