Rather than attempt to reply to all the misconceptions below, I figured I'd post here. I'm not on your server. My browser isn't on your site. It sent a request

Rather than attempt to reply to all the misconceptions below, I figured I'd post here. I'm not on your server. My browser isn't on your site. It sent a request to your server to send me a copy of some content. Your server sent that content. It's all on my computer. This, in my opinion, is why Do Not Track is silly: You, nor your server, have any right to the expectation that I'll send tracking information (that your site provided in, say, a cookie) with every request. Meaning that the browser makers should be providing users options in this space- the power lies entirely with the browser makers and their users. Of course, completely omitting cookies and other tracking details leaves you, the site owner, making assumptions about user behavior on your site from a limited number of details like IP address and perhaps user agent strings. The ever popular cookie was the answer to maintaining session data across requests, and Double Click made famous the idea of tracking users across many sites (by embedding their assets [a blank pixel, a JavaScript, etc] and giving the user a doubleclick.net cookie.) Double Click's concept was, in the minds of most Internet users, a perversion of the purpose of cookies.