‘Do Not Track’ effort at a standstill

Little progress has been made toward implementing a “Do Not Track” button for the Web more than nine months after a highly publicized launch event at the White House. Advertisers, privacy groups and government officials came together in February to tout their agreement to give Internet users an easy way to opt out of online tracking. But stakeholders involved in the effort are "not really any closer to an agreement" to make the feature happen, according to Mike Zaneis, general counsel of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Jonathan Mayer, a privacy advocate and graduate student at Stanford University, said negotiations are at a "standstill," with the two sides unlikely to bridge their differences on core issues.