The Federal Trade Commission’s new chairwoman doesn’t trust advertising companies to play by the honor system. AdWeek reports that FTC chair Edith Ramirez said this week that “consumers await a functioning Do Not Track system, which is long overdue,” thus implying that the current Do Not Track system is inadequate. Instead, Ramirez said that web users needed “a persistent Do Not Track mechanism that allows consumers to stop control of data across all sites, and not just for targeting ads.” Both Google and the Digital Advertising Alliance last year agreed to adhere to a Do Not Track system that lets users restrict the data that websites can collect about them through cookies. However, the DAA drew some significant criticism last year when it announced that its members would not honor the Do Not Track settings of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser because it made Do Not Track the default option for users.



Prior to joining BGR as News Editor, Brad Reed spent five years covering the wireless industry for Network World. His first smartphone was a BlackBerry but he has since become a loyal Android user.