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Do Not Track deprecation notice is self-fulfilling #26295

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eligrey opened this issue Apr 19, 2023 · 4 comments
Closed

Do Not Track deprecation notice is self-fulfilling #26295

eligrey opened this issue Apr 19, 2023 · 4 comments
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closed: duplicate This issue or pull request already exists Content:HTTP HTTP docs

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@eligrey
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eligrey commented Apr 19, 2023 •
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MDN URL

What specific section or headline is this issue about?

The deprecation notice

What information was incorrect, unhelpful, or incomplete?

The deprecation notice on MDN's Do Not Track page causes developers to not respect Do Not Track, which further entrenches the subtle idea that Do Not Track should be or already is deprecated. This creates an obvious viscous cycle of causing more developers to not respect it, increasing the perception that it should be/is deprecated.

I also argue that this notice is incorrect. If this feature was actually deprecated I would expect to see an actual timeline for its removal. I do not see that.

What did you expect to see?

No deprecation notice, or alternatively a blurb about the current limits of legal enforceability regarding this feature.

Do you have any supporting links, references, or citations?

I asked a Consent Management Platform developer if they would support Do Not Track in their platform and they responded no, citing this MDN article's deprecation notice.

DNT has not been removed from Firefox or Chrome and with the new upcoming ePrivacy Regulation it may be revitalized in terms of the legal responsibilities of website owners.

Do you have anything more you want to share?

No response
@eligrey eligrey added the needs triage Triage needed by staff and/or partners. Automatically applied when an issue is opened. label Apr 19, 2023
@github-actions github-actions bot added the Content:HTTP HTTP docs label Apr 19, 2023
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Sounds interesting, looks like this issue requires a repeated review by the concerned team.

@MaleshaH

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@Josh-Cena
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The deprecation status is not decided by us; it's decided by the standard itself. In this case see the standard document:

Since its last publication as a Candidate Recommendation, there has not been sufficient deployment of these extensions (as defined) to justify further advancement, nor have there been indications of planned support among user agents, third parties, and the ecosystem at large. The working group has therefore decided to conclude its work and republish the final product as this Note, with any future addendums to be published separately.

It's basically in a state where you don't need it unshipped (because it poses no hazards) but there's no point in advancing it either. You are free to use it yourself but be aware that it's just an internal protocol of your own client and server, and serves little purpose more significant than a custom HTTP header. You could also see mdn/browser-compat-data#10469 for a detailed analysis of why it should be considered deprecated. Further explanation work about its awkward status will be tracked in #12912.

@Josh-Cena Josh-Cena closed this as not planned Won't fix, can't repro, duplicate, stale May 31, 2023
@Josh-Cena Josh-Cena added closed: duplicate This issue or pull request already exists and removed needs triage Triage needed by staff and/or partners. Automatically applied when an issue is opened. labels May 31, 2023
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