Please bring back “Do Not Track” checkbox and make it on by default

[welyr]

Please restore the “Do Not Track” checkbox in FireFox and make it the default setting.

The argument for removing this as I understand it is that most sites do not recognize it anyways. However I believe this misses the point.

First, there are some websites I know which at least claim to recognize this signal (they used to present a little popup acknowledging it). This to me is an indication that’s a website I ought to prefer over competitors. I want that type of indication as to which websites respect privacy and which do not.

Second, the fact that few people present “Do Not Track” signals provides companies a justification for NOT respecting it. It also provides cover for lawmakers who don’t want to pass legislation requiring it. Basically, I want that signal enabled to make a point that I DO want respecting it to be required.

Lastly, I want to not give consent to things automatically. While it may not be legally binding on companies at this time, to the maximum extent possible I would like to be able to make the argument that I did not consent to having my data collected and shared.

As to the idea that it could “reduce privacy”, I assume this refers to “fingerprinting” because few people would have it enabled. The solution is simple: it should be on by default. If MOST FireFox users had this flag enabled because it was the default, then it would not be adding much information which facilitated fingerprinting. 

I particularly find the “note” on the Do Not Track support page that “You may see less relevant advertising on websites if you have the Do Not Track option activated” to be particularly frustrating.  So your support page is in fact acknowledging that this flag could have some effect on the user's experience.   But this is exactly what we are trying to achieve with this flag!!!!  The fact that companies are trying to profile us and feed us advertising or content (which might not just be advertising things they want us to buy, but potentially also political messages) based on what their algorithms and the profiles they are generating of us conclude are our psychological weaknesses is exactly the thing we wanted privacy focused technology to prevent.  We may want to know if advertisers are "talking out of both sides of their mouth" by telling everyone exactly what they think we want to hear.