Why Do Not Track is worse than a miserable failure
Found on ZDnet on Sunday, 23 September 2012
Two big associations, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Digital Advertising Alliance, represent 90% of advertisers. Downey says those big groups have devised their own interpretation of Do Not Track. When the servers controlled by those big companies encounter a DNT=1 header, says Downey, "They have said they will stop serving targeted ads but will still collect and store and monetize data.”
In the real world, Do Not Track is a cruel joke. The companies that are collecting and storing information about you will use their support of the standard for PR purposes and then ignore its intent.
That was pretty much obvious right from the start. Data collectors have no reason to respect the DNT header, and they won't because it would stop them from gathering the user data which they sell. You might as well try to introduce a "Do Not Spam" header; I'm sure it will have the same results and not affect the amount of spam you'll receive in any way.