Private Search and Do Not Track

Have you seen the [private search] line on your analytics page.  What once provided search terms and other information is no longer available.  I believe this is part of the "do not track" movement.

There is a great article in Ad Age about how marketers may survive in the coming "do not track" world. Below is a quote from the website:

Spurred on by privacy advocates and regulators, browser makers continue to raise the stakes in their approaches to implementing "Do Not Track" options. Microsoft has announced that next version of Internet Explorer will ship with the "Do Not Track" option already checked. 

Some of the biggest ad holding companies have reached out to Microsoft this month to make their case against the do-not-track default for IE.  Microsoft always goes its own way, so I would prepare for "do not track." 


Advertisers want the ability to combine their own data with third party behavioral or even location data to make ads more targeted and effective. They may just have to go back to writing advertising that is honest and transparent and draws the client into a relationship. In other words, engage the client without knowing if he used Crest or Colgate this morning.

So, we have gone from general advertising, written on what is known about the target market, to targeting and retargeting and tracking people as they visit websites to [private search].  We appear to have gone full circle.

I am not sure how I feel about this as a marketer and a consumer.  What do you think?