That's a mighty suspicious amendment to the spec. Its almost as if they want to make sure you're tracked. Will they require certified mail and a witness to verify you really really mean DNT next?
Can the W3C justify this amendment at all being for the good of the user?
I don't know enough to determine what % of companies represented on the panel are ad-supported; per a comment on the Microsoft blog:
> thank you for not folding to the corrupt w3c standards
> body that is setting the standards with a full deck of ad
> supported companies on the panel
My understanding (and while I've talked to people who are in the working group, I'm not in the working group or following the discussions closely) is that this was already (prior to the spec being modified) the common understanding of the people within the working group. It just hadn't previously been written in the spec, perhaps because it was thought to be obvious.
(And, given the context of what the group is trying to do -- build a do-not-track mechanism that advertisers are willing to honor -- I agree that it's obvious.)
Can the W3C justify this amendment at all being for the good of the user?