Global Privacy Control (GPC) Global Privacy Control) is a new initiative by researchers, news companies from the United States, some browser makers, the EFF, some search engines and some other organizations to improve the privacy and rights of Internet users.
In one proposal, the GPC lets sites that a user links to know that the user denies the site the right to sell or share personal information with third parties.
Although it sounds like Do Not Track header 2.0, it is designed to work with existing (and future) legal frameworks such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
How does it work;
Όλα ξεκινούν με ένα πρόγραμμα περιήγησης, και μια επέκταση ή εφαρμογή που υποστηρίζει το GPC. Προς το παρόν, αυτό σημαίνει μια dev έκδοση του Brave, της εφαρμογής DuckDuckGo για Android ή για το iOS ή τις extensions browser from DuckDuckGo, Disconnect, EFF or Abine.
Brave has GPC enabled with no options to disable it, while other browsers, apps or extensions may require users to enable it. In the DuckDuckGo Privacy app Browser, for example, it is necessary to activate the Global Privacy Control from the settings to use it.
For users, the above is all there is right now. The browser, application or extension adds the GPC information to the data submitted during duration of links so websites know about it.
The next step depends entirely on the site the user is linking to. Non-participating sites will ignore the header.
When a site participates, it will ensure that user data is not shared or sold to third parties.
Will GPC become important?
The Do Not Track started with the hope that internet privacy would change for the better, but it turned out that it did not. In fact, it could even be used in fingerprinting efforts.
GPC's fate may be similar. Right now, the support limited to a few extensions, apps, a browser with marginal market share, and some participating websites. Some of the participating sites may be important, such as The New York Times, but currently its usage is very limited.
Mozilla and Automattic (WordPress) are leading the effort but have not implemented any applications so far.
But even if these two companies, or maybe others, add support for GPC, the big internet companies like Google, Microsoft Apple, etc. should join.
So waiting.
