Do Not Track Arriving at Yahoo!

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Yahoo! is one of the first large Internet companies promising to honor the browser-based do-not-track headers.

The company announced last week that it will stop delivering ads and content to consumers that activate browser-based do-not-track features and will not create marketing profiles of those users.

Yahoo’s DNT solution has been in development since last year and, according to Yahoo, is implemented in-line with Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) guidelines for the use of online behavioral advertising (also called “Interest-based” advertising) and multi-site data.

Do-not-track is particuarly challenging for companies like Yahoo! as not only is it a first-party publisher, but it also acts as a third-party ad network through its ad companies Right Media and Interclick. Yahoo!'s announcement comes the same week as the Federal Trade Commission released its final privacy report calling on ad networks to honor do-not-track requests.

How this will impact advertising costs and revenue for Yahoo! is unknown.

What is do-not-track?
Internet users with an up-to-date Web browser now have an option to set a do-not-track (DNT) preference in their browser. When the feature is activated, a signal is sent to servers collecting data.

When those services receive the DNT signal, it will activate Yahoo!'s opt-out process. According to the announcement, Yahoo will then no longer score activities for advertising or content interest and cease ad personalization and content personalization based on those interest scores.

'Net Features : digital advertising alliance

Do Not Track Arriving at Yahoo!