CMU Study Shows Nothing, Press Comments on It

This article caught my eye because it talked about the power of defaults, which I believe in. It didn’t wander into the weeds until it talked about research at CMU which had researchers measuring whether users could protect their browsing privacy. Except the measurement method is invalid. The researchers created a definition to stop online behavioral tracking that isn’t effective and then measured whether users could implement their crazy definition.

There is no current technology effective at stopping online behavioral tracking. Measuring whether users can tweak settings in a browser to stop online behavioral tracking is like measuring whether consumers can stop foreclosure fraud by fully reading their mortgage note before signing it. The action and reaction have little, if anything, to do with each other.