DNT is meant as an explicit opt-out. A unified way for users to expressly say that they do not want to be tracked, if possible. Users actually going into the se

DNT is meant as an explicit opt-out. A unified way for users to expressly say that they do not want to be tracked, if possible. Users actually going into the settings and flipping that switch makes it clear that it's their request and therefore could have given it legal bearing. (Exceptions from that for functionality that requires tracking, like online shopping, would be given implicitely by using that functionality.) Unfortunately, Google, Facebook and Microsoft managed to kill that effort off. Microsoft by doing exactly that, they default-enabled it in Internet Explorer, taking away any legal bearing. And Google+Facebook came out saying they don't give a fuck, they'll track users anyways, and then with something around 2/3 of all bigger webpages having Google Analytics deployed and some other ridiculous percentage having a Facebook Like-Button, there were essentially no webpages left that could have come out and said that they want to respect it in some fashion.