Advertisers to Microsoft: Reverse Course on Do Not Track Browser

Advertisers came out swinging today against Microsoft’s new browser, Windows 8, which automatically defaults to Do Not Track. The move by Microsoft to include this feature setting stunned the Internet and ad communities which had agreed and received government support to implement an opt-in Do Not Track feature across all browsers by the end of the year. Despite repeated pleas to Microsoft from advertisers and even Federal Trade Commissioner chairman Jon Leibowitz to change course, Microsoft hasn’t budged and recently defended its decision in a recent AdWeek column. Hoping to put more pressure on Microsoft and requesting an “immediate dialogue” to talk about the decision, the board of directors for the Association of National Advertisers, representing more than 450 companies and 10,000 brands, wrote to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other Microsoft execs.