Thread · 7 tweets · 7 Oct 2020

People the world around increasingly have privacy rights. But these rights are often made to be hard work: you have to exercise them on every site, and they are often hidden complex settings, "consent management platforms," or "privacy check-ups." This changes today.

Today we announce the Global Privacy Control, or GPC. GPC is a signal that enables your browser to work for you, telling sites that you do not want your data to be sold. The browser's job is to be the user's agent. This empowers browsers to work better. globalprivacycontrol.org

The signal is designed to be legally enforceable under the CCPA, the GDPR, and other similar regimes. This is not a toothless preference: it's an expression of legal rights. You can think of it as DNT, except there are fines if you don't abide by it.

The Vegas Rule — what happens on a site stays on that site — is in the interest of both users and publishers. That is why publishers like the @nytimes, the @FT, and the @washingtonpost are in the process of rolling out support for GPC.

We look forward to building this up into a full-fledged open standard. You standards nerds can check out the draft here: globalprivacycontrol.github.io/gpc-spec/

You can read more about this from Wired's @GiladEdelman: wired.com/story/global-p…

Many thanks to the wicked cool team that made this happen. GPC on its own won't be enough to make privacy right on the Web, but it's an important step in the right direction. Let's keep pushing!