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devnull
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Does Stack Exchange have an official policy on honoring "Do Not Track" browser settings?

I know that everyone in the world today wants to know pretty much everything (possibly more than one's spouse) about everyone.

Does Stack Exchange have an official policy on honoring Do Not Track browser settings?

FWIW, my browser settings clearly say:

Tell sites that I do not want to be tracked

browser settings

However, upon navigating to any of the SE sites, it's evident that Do Not Track setting isn't being honored.

Privacy Badger browser extension from EFF tells me that I am being tracked:

enter image description here

Moreover, on http://stackoverflow.com I see another site doing the same:

http://engine.adzerk.net

I understand that there is no legal requirement to honor the setting. I just wanted to understand what is the public stand that Stack Exchange takes in this regard?


The Privacy Policy, as of now, doesn't answer this question.

It says:

If anything in this policy seems unclear, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected], so we can address your question and possibly clarify this document.

It appears that noone from [email protected] happens to read questions posted on this site. Sweet!


EDIT: One of the comments claims that it's not Stack Exchange but the advertisers who are tracking. While one of the SE sites http://qa.sockets.stackexchange.com happens to be on the list of those that are attempting to track the user, the others are advertisers. Why can't Stack Exchange ensure that it's advertisers offer a mechanism of tracking opt-out?

It's funny to see that those contributing under cc-by-sa are tracked by Stack Exchange and/or it's advertisers without any clear word about the policy.


EDIT: Another comment points out that Houston, we are web bugged! is related. Please note that this post is about asking whether Stack Exchange and it's advertisers are committed to honoring "Do Not Track" settings. Regardless of what the take is, the Privacy Policy probably needs to be clear about it. If it's known that your advertisers would track the users against their wishes, then it's better to state it explicitly.


EDIT: This post claims that SE has a new, clearer, stricter privacy policy that is:

  • Actually readable by human non-lawyers

Yet it fails to answer this basic question and it appears that there is little willingness to answer it.

Is there a reason for not saying that SE and/or it's advertisers would not honor Do Not Track?

devnull
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