Professor to Try to Salvage Troubled “Do Not Track” Deal
Ohio State Law professor Peter Swire has agreed to step in to try to salvage contentious negotiations between privacy advocates and the online advertising industry over how to block unwanted online tracking.
However, the appointment of Mr. Swire, who served as chief counselor for privacy in the Clinton Administration, is unlikely to result in a do-not-track deal by the end of this year, as previously promised.
Earlier this year, a coalition of Internet giants agreed to support a do-not-track button that would let Web users block tracking with a single privacy setting in their Web browser. Currently, Web users who want to turn off tracking must install tracking files from more than 100 companies, alerting those companies that they do not want to be tracked.