– Rappler.Protecting your privacy online is like protecting your home. People can also visit the Global Privacy Control website, which can tell users if they have the setting on. The setting is already available on DuckDuckGo, and is expected to be on Firefox and other browsers in the future. The article also notes that publishers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Financial Times, and Automattic, which operates blogging platforms and Tumblr, are backing the new standard. Dolanjski expects the standard to move forward however as authorities and industry groups react and implement the setting. The groups behind Global Privacy Control are looking to gain legal backing in order to enforce browsing privacy more strictly.įast Company reports the standard is at an experimental stage and “currently not intended to convey legally binding requests,” said Peter Dolanjski, DuckDuckGo director of product. The groups seek support from regions with proactive rules on privacy such as California with its California Consumer Privacy Act, and Europe with its General Data Protection Regulation.Ī similar “Do Not Track” setting is already available on browsers including Chrome but websites are free to ignore the setting. The new standard aims to help the privacy movement take a step toward a private web browsing environment that will not rely on the collection of user data for profit. (READ: What you need to know about surveillance capitalism) But the practice has led to more negative effects on democracy as platforms’ data-powered content targeting led to echo chambers that reinforce biases, cause polarization, and leave people vulnerable to hate-laced, bias-confirming misinformation and disinformation.

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