Do Not Track in the Windows 8 Setup Experience
With Windows 8's recent release to manufacturing, we know many people are interested in how customers will discover Do Not Track (DNT) in Internet Explorer 10. DNT will be enabled in the “Express Settings” portion of the Windows 8 set-up experience.
Context & Ripple Effects
When Microsoft first said in May 2012 it would make 'Do Not Track' the default in Internet Explorer 10 — a move Wired framed as an ad network nightmare — the open question was how the setting would actually reach users. This post answers that: with Windows 8 released to manufacturing, DNT ships enabled inside the 'Express Settings' path of setup, meaning most consumers who click through installation will emit the signal without ever seeing a privacy choice.
The pickup was broad — Ars Technica, PC World, PC Magazine, BetaNews and others all ran the story on or about August 7 — reflecting how much rides on the mechanics: a default buried in Express Settings is precisely what the advertising industry argues does not constitute an affirmative user choice under the W3C DNT process.
First-order effects
- New Windows 8 PC buyers who choose Express Settings get Internet Explorer 10 with DNT enabled out of the box, sending do-not-track headers to every site they visit from day one.
- Ad networks and analytics providers begin receiving DNT signals at scale from a population that never explicitly opted in, forcing each network to decide whether to honor or ignore those headers.
Second-order effects
- If major ad networks decline to honor default-on signals, DNT's practical value collapses for the very users Microsoft says it is protecting — and the standards fight shifts to whether 'on by default' counts as consented expression.
- Rival browsers face pressure to match the default or explain why they did not, turning a setup-screen checkbox into a competitive differentiator among browser vendors.
Third-order effects
- The episode moves tracking policy away from legislation and toward platform defaults: whoever controls the install experience effectively sets privacy posture for hundreds of millions of machines, and the durability of any signal depends on ad-industry acceptance of how it was switched on.
The trend: Browser privacy preferences are migrating from explicit user opt-in to platform-set defaults, with the ad industry's willingness to honor the signal becoming the real enforcement mechanism.