Saturday, February 12, 2011

Google Chrome Will Let Me Keep My Opt-Outs

Google announced today that it's  Chrome will  let me Keep My Opt-Outs, allowing me to opt out permanently from ad tracking cookies, like Adobe Supercookies (But I wonder if embedded flash on Chrome does it or we have to shut the doors on Adobe ourselves, like described in the preceding link).
The  Keep My Opt-Outs is available as an extension for download in Chrome.
The reason behind the Keep My Opt-Outs is the FTC's interest in protecting US consumers from AD tracking companies, with "Do Not Track" initiative. The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) formed by a group of advertising companies already let people opt out of personalized tracking for the purposes of personalizing advertisements. There are also many online advertisers and trade associations have also joined a major self-regulatory effort to enforce a uniform privacy icon for ads, as well as opt-out guidelines.
The Google's Keep My Opt-Outs is filling the technical void that exists today to just that, The extension alleviate most of the problems of opting out from these ads and yet allow regular ads to appear.
You can read more at Google Public policy blog.

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