Pinterest adds "do not track us" feature

In Silicon Valley there are hundreds of companies that track people’s habits with the hopes of offering more intrusive advertising. There are, in comparison, very few Valley start-ups that give people the opportunity to opt out of that tracking.

Pinterest announced on Friday it would be adding support for Do Not Track, the feature in select Web browsers that allows people to avoid cookies from third parties, as well as those that collect personal information.

Pinterest is doing this by enabling the Do Not Track feature in certain Web browsers that allows people to avoid cookies that collect personal information as well as any third-party cookies, including those used for advertising.

Like Twitter did in 2012, Pinterest is rolling out a new feature for those who choose not to take advantage of Do Not Track – a feature the company claims will help surface better content to its members, Bilton said. Among those services are a new “board suggestions” component that will determine the right type of recommendations for comment by tracking the various Web sites visited by a user, provided the site includes Pinterest support.

At the same time it announced the Do Not Track option, the company added a new “board suggestions” component to its site. It will figure out the right type of recommendations for content by tracking the type of Web sites someone has visited that included a “Pin” button.
For example, if you visit a cooking Web site that displays the Pinterest Pin, and then go to Pinterest’s Web site, you will see recommendations for cooking-related pinboards.

In a blog post on the company’s Web site, Pinterest said: “We’re excited to offer everyone a more personal experience, but we also understand if you’re not interested. We respect Do Not Track as an option for people who want to turn off this collection of browsing activity from other sites.”

Privacy groups lauded the company’s decision to allow people to avoid being tracked online.