FTC Commissioner Blasts Microsoft Do Not Track Browser

In a letter to the World Wide Web Consortium Tracking Protection Working Group, Federal Trade Commission member J. Thomas Rosch criticized Microsoft's default Do Not Track setting on its new browser, lending his support to the Internet ad community's assertion that the feature departs from industry consensus and limits consumer choice.

The default setting does not give consumers choice, Commissioner Rosch argued in his letter. "To the contrary, Microsoft's default DNT setting means that Microsoft, not consumers, will be exercising choice as to what signal the browser will send," he wrote. Rosch's letter also took issue with a letter sent to the World Wide Web Consortium from Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX), co-chairs of the Congressional Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, who embraced the default approach as the suggested standard for the industry. The duo, who were copied on Rosch's letter, advocate that DNT should mean both do not collect and target. Because Microsoft's default DNT browser departs from the Internet ad industry's consensus, the community is likely not to honor the signal that Microsoft's browser would send.