Standardizing and Implementing Do Not Sell

Abstract

The California Consumer Privacy Act gives consumers the right to request that businesses do not sell their personal information. "Selling"is defined broadly and covers, among others, making personal information available to ad networks on websites via third party cookies. We began standardizing and implementing Do Not Sell technologies with the goal of integrating Do Not Sell directly into browser settings. Based on OptMeowt, our proof of concept Do Not Sell browser extension, we conduct experiments on the design, implementation, and current state of Do Not Sell. OptMeowt automatically places Do Not Sell cookies on visited sites and sends Do Not Sell headers per our draft standard. We believe that standardizing Do Not Sell provides an important building block for evolving the web towards increased privacy protections.