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This article is a WTF explainer, in which we break down media and marketing’s most confusing terms. More from the series →
Do Not Track is dead, long live Do Not Track.
Although Do Not Track failed as an effort to make it easier for people to opt out of being tracked and targeted online, its spirit lives on in the Global Privacy Control. Despite their similarities, the Global Privacy Control seems more likely to succeed where Do Not Track struggled: getting companies to actually comply with it, as covered in the explainer video below.
Privacy regulators in California, for example, have said companies need to honor GPC to comply with the state’s privacy law. And the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s privacy compliance framework — the Multi-State Privacy Agreement — includes support of GPC, while publishers including The New York Times and WordPress owner Automattic similarly support the opt-out request facilitator.
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