Chrome Story

How To Enable “Do Not Track” on Google Chrome

Its fun bringing latest features and “How To” s  to you all, even before they make it to Chrome stable, beta or sometimes even dev version.

Here is the latest in the list courtesy of François Beaufort How To Enable “Do Not Track” on Google Chrome.

Do Not Track – What It is  and What It is Not

Before we getting to “how to”, lets discuss some “what and what not”

What is Do Not Track? 

Do Not Track is a technology and policy proposal that enables users to opt out of tracking by websites they do not visit, including analytics services, advertising networks, and social platforms. At present few of these third parties offer a reliable tracking opt out, and tools for blocking them are neither user-friendly nor comprehensive. Much like the popular Do Not Call registry, Do Not Track provides users with a single, simple, persistent choice to opt out of third-party web tracking. 

What It is Not

While it is a “good to have” feature, it is not the final word on privacy. You are showing your interest to be ” not tracked” but it  is completely up to the website that you are visiting to honor your request or not. But this is a start, at least. Correct?

How To Enable “Do Not Track” on Google Chrome

Now, lets get to the real meat. To enable Do Not Track on Google Chrome,

  1. Open Settings from Chrome menu
  2. Under Privacy, select Send a ‘Do Not Track’ request with your browsing traffic
  3. Click OK on the pop up

What does that pop up say? You got some important information about this feature there.

Enabling ‘Do Not Track’ means that a request will be included with your browsing traffic. Any effect depends on whether a website responds to the request, and how the request is interpreted. For example, some websites may respond to this request by showing you ads that aren’t based on other websites you’ve visited. Many websites will still collect and use your browsing data – for example to improve security, to provide content, services, ads and recommendations on their websites, and to generate reporting statistics.

Hope you got it working!

In

2 responses to “How To Enable “Do Not Track” on Google Chrome”

  1. Susan Cassidy

    Hey there, Dinu, I follow all of your posts! Thanks for taking your valuable time to share with everyone! In regards to this particular post: Is this available ONLY in a certain version of Google Chrome? I am using a Cr-48 and I am on the Beta channel. In my settings, I do NOT have the selection “Send a “do not track” request with your browsing traffic.” I am using Chrome OS, of course! Now, is this only available in Chromium? Thanks, in advance, for your time!

    Reply
    1. Dinsan – Bangalore, India – Digital Minimalist & Content Developer. Drinks Tea and writes Stuff (mostly about Chromebooks). My views are mostly copied from others.
      Dinu

      this is available on Dev builds now..

      Reply

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