And you should never assume that your web browsing is 100 percent private because data companies come up with new ways to follow you around the internet all the time. In the meantime, why not take advantage of the web browser privacy options you do have? Some are better than others, as you’ll see, and even the best browser from a privacy standpoint has its downsides. But, as Wired points out, it could be several years before Global Privacy Control fully goes into effect, and there’s still no guarantee that it will. Or you can get it through the Privacy Badger extension available for most browsers. Global Privacy Control may not do much now, but if you want to get it for yourself, it’s available on DuckDuckGo’s mobile browser now and in the process of being added to the Brave’s browser. In the meantime, a few websites have already agreed to do so voluntarily, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. The trick now is getting California to approve Global Privacy Control as the global privacy control called for in the law, at which point websites will be legally bound to follow it. “It would have been ideal if the had adopted Do Not Track as the mechanism, but unfortunately their opinion was that couldn’t be used,” Soltani told Recode. Global Privacy Control, however, is more specific and limited to what the law requires. Do Not Track couldn’t be used for this because “track” means more than just the sale or sharing of data it’s too broad. CCPA includes a provision for browser “global privacy controls” regarding data selling and sharing, and a requirement that websites follow them. Soltani told Recode that he’s pretty optimistic that Global Privacy Control will be able to do what Do Not Track couldn’t. Unsurprisingly, then, he’s also behind Global Privacy Control. He’s the co-author of CCPA and an upcoming ballot measure in California called Proposition 24 that would amend it. The problem with Do Not Track was that websites weren’t legally required to comply with it, so very few of them did.Īshkan Soltani was part of the Do Not Track effort back in 2010 as a staff technologist at the FTC and has spent most of his career researching and investigating internet privacy and tracking. Do Not Track, introduced in 2010, was an attempt by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to institute a sort of digital equivalent to the Do Not Call list: a browser extension or setting that tells websites you visit that you don’t want to be tracked. If a browser extension that tells websites your privacy preferences sounds familiar, that’s because something like this has been tried before. With Global Privacy Control, that request would be automatic, relayed as soon as you visit the site, and, if you’re in a location where it’s legally required - like California - websites would have to abide by your request. And while laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) give users the right to request that businesses not sell their data, those users have to make that request of every site they visit, a process that is too time-consuming for most people. While some browsers have built-in tools (or available extensions) meant to stop tracking in the first place, they aren’t always effective, and they can’t do anything once your data is collected. The idea behind Global Privacy Control would be to place a setting on your browser that tells every site you visit that you don’t want your data to be sold or shared with anyone else, and websites would have to respect your wishes. Trackers hidden on the vast majority of websites collect as much information about us as possible and try to link that data to our actions online as well as off, typically to send us targeted ads. If nothing else, the recent launch of the new specification is a great opportunity to check out your browser’s privacy options - and your browser options in general. For now, it doesn’t do much, but it is available if you want to add it to your browser. Data privacy laws are still a work in progress, but one major improvement is coming: Global Privacy Control, which - assuming everything works out - will let you automatically opt out of having your data sold or shared at every website you visit.
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