In a letter to the W3C Tracking Protection Working Group, the lawmakers urged the body “to make protection of consumer privacy a priority and support Microsoft’s announcement by endorsing a default Do Not Track setting.”
Microsoft announced earlier this month that IE10 on Windows 8 would support DNT by default. Reaction from advertisers was immediate and negative.
Bob Liodice, president and chief executive officer of the Association of National Advertisers, said Microsoft “acted irresponsibly through its unilateral action to embed ‘Do Not Track’ functionality into Internet Explorer 10 with a default setting in the ‘on’ position.”
Advertisers have been lobbying the W3C to develop a rule that exempts from complying with DNT messages if the feature is a default setting, according to The Hill newspaper. Under a preliminary draft proposal from the working group, the DNT message would only be valid if users have to opt in to DNT, the newspaper related.
The W3C working group is meeting this week in Bellevue, Wash., to work on DNT technology and policy rules.