Do Not Track Plus (Firefox add-on) - Restore your online privacy - Mini-Review

[IainB]

Basic Info

App Name	Do Not Track Plus (DNT+) by Abine.
App URL	Mozilla add-ons
App Version Reviewed	Freeware Firefox add-on version 2.0.6 (as at 2012-02-17)
Test System Specs	Here is a comparison table of features between different versions of Firefox privacy management tools/add-ons (e.g., including Ghostery): Note: Detailed features and a concise 2-minute guided tour video are here.
Supported OSes	Current versions of the Firefox browser.
Support Methods	FAQ Blog Support Online Chat
Upgrade Policy	Automatic free upgrades to newer versions of the add-on. (Other paid-for tools also available.)
Trial Version Available?	This is an uncrippled FREE/trial version.
Pricing Scheme	(Not applicable.)

SCREENSHOT OF APP INTERFACE:
(No screenshot - not necessary.) The 2-minute guided tour video explains it very concisely.

Note: There is a green DNT+ icon (button) in the top RHS corner of the browser menu bar.

Introduction:
A Firefox add-on for enhanced privacy management.
EDIT: 2012-02-18 1410hrs

DNT+ is not an ad-blocker. It blocks personal data tracking cookies that are used to track your online activity on the Internet.
(It is thus similar to the Firefox Ghostery add-on.)

Overview:
This is a privacy improvement/management tool and seems to be quite sophisticated.
It replaces "Do not track me" cookies in place of cookies set in your browser.
(For example, similar to, but not as flexible as, what you could do with the now defunct JunkBuster proxy's "cookie jar", some years back.)

Who this app is designed for:
Anybody who is concerned about the remorseless invasion of privacy by marketing data companie, who collect tracking data about  your personal activity on the web, and sell it to advertisers for targeted advertising - e.g., Google, Facebook, double-click, etc.

The Good:
An excellent add-on.
Seems to perform its job very well. It runs unobtrusively and has no perceptible performance overhead impacting the browser.    

The needs improvement section:
I have not observed that anything needs improvement. No annoyances.
(Automatic updates will cope cope with changes to Firefox, improvements and bug-fixes.)

Why I think you should use this product:
If you are concerned about the remorseless invasion of privacy by marketing data companies, who collect tracking data about your personal activity on the web, then you need this add-on and will be able to put it to good use.

How it compares to similar apps:
My experience is that it overlaps with some of the functionality of the now-defunct JunkBuster, and may supersede the (very good) Firefox Ghostery add-on.
Like Ghostery, DNT+ also provides information about the tracking that you are being exposed to and that is being blocked.

Conclusions:
Superb. AAA+ rating.  
Does what it says it does, and very well.
I found it worthwhile reading the other users' reviews of this add-on on the Mozilla site.
EDIT: 2012-02-18 0026hrs

Google Circumvents Safari Privacy Protections - This is Why We Need Do Not Track
A signal weakness of the DNT+ approach would seem to be that it relies on trust, and that trust has apparently already been breached by Google in the case of the Safari browser's DNT approach.

[nosh]

Looks very interesting... just installed it. Thanks for the review.

For anyone wondering if it's an AdBlock Plus replacement... it isn't.

An excerpt from the author's comment on the Mozilla site.
 

2. incidental ad-blocking. DNT+ is not designed to be an ad-blocker. we FULLY SUPPORT contextual advertising and the ability of web site owners to make money from it. Any ad-blocking we do is incidental and is a byproduct of the configuration of the ad-network and javascript they use. There are ways to advertise online without behavioral targeting and profiling. If you see a large amount of ads being blocked, let us know and we'll investigate.

[IainB]

As an edit, I have just posted this into the review:
EDIT: 2012-02-18 0026hrs

Google Circumvents Safari Privacy Protections - This is Why We Need Do Not Track
A signal weakness of the DNT+ approach would seem to be that it relies on trust, and that trust has apparently already been breached by Google in the case of the Safari browser's DNT approach.

[joiwind]

I'm using DNT+ on Iron since a few days and comparing the results with Ghostery - for the moment I prefer DNT+ as it provides more user information, however the database is a bit smaller than the Ghostery one but this will no doubt change soon.

 

[cranioscopical]

Thanks for taking the trouble to do this, IainB 

[Innuendo]

Grr...replied earlier to this and it seems to have evaporated. My original reply was:

I've been using TACO 3.0+Albine for quite some time. Despite some missteps in them trying to get their commercial side of things off the ground, it has been pretty good to me. I used to be a Ghostery user, but once I found out they sell users' data I was off to other pastures.

The comparison chart above left a bad taste in my mouth. It makes it appear as those DNT+ has ad-blocking functionality & from what I can see from nosh's reply, I wasn't the only one to make that mistake.

[IainB]

Just so as to help clarify things, I have made this edit to the opening review post:
EDIT: 2012-02-18 1410hrs

DNT+ is not an ad-blocker. It blocks personal data tracking cookies that are used to track your online activity on the Internet.
(It is thus similar to the Firefox Ghostery add-on.)

[Innuendo]

Just so as to help clarify things, I have made this edit to the opening review post:

-IainB (February 17, 2012, 07:18 PM)

Just to clarify my earlier remark, the confusion was due to the way the DNT+ author(s) position the product. You didn't contribute to the confusion at all.

[IainB]

Posted here in case it might be of use.
Interesting notes. Though I have not experienced any difficulty logging in to my router (a THOMSON model). I wondered if other users of this FF add-on might have been having difficulty.
From: http://blog.ffextens...inksys-router-admin/

Do Not Track & LinkSys Router Admin
by The Guru
I discovered an odd glitch when trying to access LinkSys Router Admin interface via Firefox. I was using the correct user name and password, but I was being told my login was wrong. I was able to get in via Chrome or IE, but not Firefox. I was looking around the LinkSys forums for something else when I came across a couple of posts from other people who could not get in via Firefox. Turns out if you have the Do Not Track (Tools > Options > Privacy > Tracking [Tell websites I do not want to be tracked]) enabled, the router admin will not work in Firefox. Turning this feature off and restarting Firefox I was able to access the router admin via Firefox with no issues.

[nosh]

My Netgear login works fine.

[Tinman57]

  They also released an Internet Explorer version.  I installed it last week but had to kill it because it also stopped Javascript buttons.  I couldn't reply or post anything on PCWorld.com forums, every time I clicked the reply button nothing happened.  Soon as I killed DNTP it started working again.