The long history of the interactions between relatively slow-moving governments and relatively fast-moving technology suggests that we should only legislate sof

The long history of the interactions between relatively slow-moving governments and relatively fast-moving technology suggests that we should only legislate software as a last resort. One of the nice things about the proposed Do Not Track standard is that it requires no additional legislation. Once advertising bodies agree to some meaningful definition of DNT, any violations could be prosecuted using existing laws that protect consumers from deceptive advertising. Online tracking is a difficult problem without a purely technical solution available. Even with 3rd party cookies blocked, advertisers will still use first party cookies (Google, Facebook), or more sneaky and difficult to mititgate mechanisms (browser fingerprinting, evercookies) to track Internet users. Legislating is slow, uncertain, full of compromise, and riddled with conflicts of interest (hold the comparisons to the current DNT negotiations, please). While it is sometimes appropriate, or required as the only remaining recourse, it is far from an ideal solution - especially with a problem such as this where there is such an imbalance of influence between parties in Washington.