Internet Explorer 10 To Enable "Do Not Track" By Default

Posted 06/01/2012 at 11:40am | by Brad Chacos

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Are you messing with us, Microsoft? For every controversial aspect of Windows 8 -- the Metro UI, limiting ARM users to Internet Explorer, et cetera -- you toss in something cool, like the new way the OS handles chkdsk operations. Today's tidbit brings good news that's a win for the little guy; by default, IE10 will have the "Do Not Track" opt-out signal enabled to keep white hat marketers and web masters from tracking users across the Net.

Do Not Track is a voluntary standard, so nefarious advertising networks can still ignore the request, but having it enabled by default in the browser that ships with the world's most popular OS is a major step forward for privacy advocates. (Conversely, it's a big step back for Internet marketers.) Virtually all major browsers include a DNT feature, but IE10 will be the first to have it running out of the box.

Oddly enough, Microsoft didn't tout the Do Not Track feature in its just-published look at web browsing in Windows 8 RP over on the mainstream Building Windows 8 Blog; instead, the news only popped up in a post on the Internet Explorer team's blog.