FOR AT LEAST a decade, privacy advocates dreamed of a universal, legally enforceable “Do not track” setting. Now, at least in the most populous state in the US, that dream has become a reality. So why isn’t Apple—a company that increasingly uses privacy as a selling point—helping its customers take advantage of it?
When California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act in 2018, it came with a large asterisk. In theory, the law gives California residents the right to tell websites not to sell their personal data. In practice, exercising that right means clicking through an interminable number of privacy policies and cookie notices, one by one, on every site you visit.