As it turned out, a Web browser setting needed to be changed.
It has been tough going for the creation of an international standard for a browser setting "Do Not Track".
It also says that any Do Not Track mechanism should be located only in the browser setting – not through a browser "installation process or any other similar mechanism".
Have you ever tried navigating around a website (or the web) with the preference on your browser set to "Ask me before accepting cookies"?
The tool would most likely take the form of a Web browser setting that travels with a user from site to site.
Microsoft replies that giving users an open-ended choice could add complexity and confusion to the browser set-up process, while offering a few options would be arbitrarily limiting.
"By putting it in a browser setting, you create a little bit of friction so that you make it simple enough for people who want to find it," he said.
But last Tuesday, the consortium published guidelines saying that it viewed Microsoft's latest browser setting as an automatic, machine-driven choice preselected by a company — not a choice actively made by an individual consumer.
His group and its members, Mr. Mastria said, "provide meaningful and effective consumer choice tools to consumers that, with the click of one button, provides consumers with the exact choice that a browser setting could provide".
