[1] This type of legislation is supported by privacy advocates and opposed by advertisers and services that use tracking information to personalize web content.
Efforts to standardize Do Not Track by the World Wide Web Consortium did not reach their goal and ended in September 2018 due to insufficient deployment and support.
[4][5] Privacy advocates worry about the fact that search engine companies can store and utilize the users' profile, medical history, criminal records, location, and their orientation to implement a marketing strategy.
A survey conducted by The Gallup Organization and the USA Today shows 61% of respondents know that some advertisements are shown to them based on their interests.
[6] On December 1, 2010, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a preliminary report highlighting the consumers' right to prevent websites from tracking their online behaviors.
Representatives Edward Markey, Joe Barton, and Cliff Stearns asked the FTC to investigate the legality of Google's change of privacy policy.
[9] The bill updates previous efforts to create Do Not Track programs by applying the concept beyond web browsers and to all Internet activity, including mobile applications.
(5) Disclose how the operator responds to Web browser “do not track” signals or other mechanisms that provide consumers the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personally identifiable information about an individual consumer’s online activities over time and across third-party Web sites or online services, if the operator engages in that collection.
Representatives Cliff Stearns and Jim Matheson introduced a bill to improve and protect consumer privacy on April 13, 2011.
According to this bill, websites must prompt a clear and conspicuous notice for customers before collecting personal information which is irrelevant to main transactions.
[17][18] The purpose of this bill, which prescribed consumer privacy rights, was to establish a regulatory framework for the comprehensive protection of personal data for individuals.
[19] It would have mandated that websites collecting user information on over 5,000 individuals: The bill failed to pass through the Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
[22] The goal of the "Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011" is to strengthen privacy protection for children by: The Obama administration announced that consumers have right to control which companies collect and use their information.
The administration also stated that the privacy policy of companies should be transparent and understandable, and hacking and personal information leakage should be completely stopped.
In response, The Internet companies such as Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and AOL promised to provide a "do not track" mechanism so that customers can choose whether they want to participate in online behavioral advertising or not.
The Obama Administration encouraged the United States Congress to grant the Federal Trade Commission the authority to enforce each element of the statutory Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.
[17] In March 2012 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a report called "Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change".
On January 25, 2012, Viviane Reding, the vice chairperson of the European Commission, suggested General Data Protection Regulation which is a more strict form than the Directive 95/46/EC is.
The Korea Communications Commission introduced a law preventing the Internet websites which have more than 10,000 daily active users from collecting and using RRN; it took effect on August 18, 2012.
For instance, Google's contentious change to its privacy settings in 2012, raised questions of how companies would interpret and implement the Do Not Track policy.
Also in 2012, Microsoft implemented a Do Not Track option into its Internet Explorer 10 browser as its default setting, which has instigated a number of public comments and critique from major companies.
Policy blog post also argues that Microsoft's decision “degrades the experience for the majority of users and makes it hard to deliver on our value proposition to them”.