FTC Chair Calls for Better 'Do Not Track' Solution

New Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez shocked attendees at the American Advertising Federation’s annual advertising day on Capitol Hill by calling for a universal solution for Do Not Track (DNT), implying dissatisfaction with the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) self-regulatory program, reported a recent Adweek story. "Consumers await a functioning Do Not Track system, which is long overdue," Ramirez said. "We advocated for a persistent Do Not Track mechanism that allows consumers to stop control of data across all sites, and not just for targeting ads." The chairwoman poured salt in the wound by urging the advertising industry to work with the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to develop a DNT standard that is browser-based, championing Microsoft's Do Not Track browser and Mozilla’s plan to block third-party cookies. The advertising industry has been at odds with Microsoft and Mozilla policies, and the DAA put out a policy statement last year that advertisers would not honor the Microsoft browser because its default setting did not give advertisers choice. Ad industry members thought their DAA program had responded to the FTC’s DNT call two years ago. For more comments, see the story at http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/ftc-chair-stuns-advertisers-148644