Reddit Has Decided to Honor Do Not Track Requests

Not too long ago, the FCC has decided that it would not force certain websites such as YouTube, Google and Facebook to honor Do Not Track requests, despite having been asked to do so by Consumer Watchdog in a petition. However, it looks like Reddit is taking the initiative, as the website has recently announced that it would, in fact, honor DNT requests, which means that it would not download third-party analytics on browsers that have this particular feature enabled. DNT requests are usually sent out in order to prevent the user from taking part in behavioral advertising, but the bad news is that these requests can be ignored completely by websites.

With more and more users becoming concerned about data collection and online tracking, it’s refreshing to find out that a huge website such as Reddit has decided to modify its privacy policy in order to honor these requests. Reddit’s co-founder and CEO, Steve Huffman, has stated the following:

“We have clarified what information we collect automatically (basically anything your browser sends us) and what we share with advertisers (nothing specific to your Reddit account).”

Another important change in the privacy policy relates to IP addresses, which will now be stored for 100 days instead of the earlier 90. However, Steve hopes that Reddit will stop storing IP addresses altogether in a future, which is an admirable goal.

“I believe in the future we will be able to accomplish this without storing IPs at all (e.g. with hashing), but we still need to work out the details.”

What do you think about Reddit’s new privacy policy changes?