Keep the "Do not Track" option

[MozillaFeedback]

First, I would keep the "Do Not Track" option but add a clear notice explaining its limitations and the fact that many websites do not respect the special HTTP header signal. Instead of removing it completely that allows for a chance of them respecting the special HTTP header signal, users who still want to use it can do so and with a full understanding of its lack of guarantee in its effectiveness.

Simultaneously, I would focus on educating users about the new, more robust privacy features like Enhanced Tracking Protection and Total Cookie Protection. Over time, as users become more familiar with these stronger privacy measures, I could gradually phase out the "Do Not Track" option, ensuring a smooth transition without leaving users feeling like they've lost a privacy tool.

This approach balances maintaining user choice while steering them towards more effective privacy protections.

[Jon]

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[wildcardcameron]

Thank you for the feedback, we have thought about this problem for a long time and one of the primary reasons we decided to remove the option was that even with our past education campaigns around DNT when there were no alternative signals, users did not care to enable it. Likewise, it no longer made sense to offer a signal that is consistently ignored by the vast majority of site operators while also being a potential fingerprinting vector itself due to how unique it is because of its low adoption.

We continue to focus on educating and promoting our other privacy features in addition to “Do Not Track” and the newer “Global Privacy Control” and as we understand any site that honors DNT would also honor GPC. However, both of these features rely on the site operator honoring a header consistently across the globe. While we do our best to educate, we also know through extensive experimentation that we can enable TCP and ETP along with other new anti-fingerprinting protections by default for our users so they don’t need to be educated, they can benefit from these tools out of the box without needing to have a detailed understanding of the nuances of web privacy and security.

We appreciate your concern, and I would like to highlight that you can still enable the DNT header in about:config if you want to. For now, all we have done is remove the checkbox and update the SUMO page to reflect our plans moving forward.