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A new development in protecting personal information has just been announced by Google and Mozilla. The two tech companies are giving users more freedom in opting out of tracking cookies. Google said that it will offer an add-on for its Chrome browser. With this add-on users do not have to be concerned about tracking cookies that monitor their movement and online behavior. This is a constructive step taken by this company in order to create a balance between revenue generation and individual privacy.

For quite a long time, the online marketing industry has favored self-regulation. The many proposals made in line with protecting personal information did not get positive results. Debates and discussions have been conducted, but no tangible plans were implemented. This action by Google and Mozilla will begin a new chapter in gaining more control over user privacy.

As users give out their personal information, they do not realize the potential consequences of doing so. For many of them, reading the website’s privacy policies is a tedious job. They skim over the information so that they do not understand how their personal information will be handled. Later on, they will wonder why they have become targets of unsolicited advertisements. In short, their privacy has been compromised.

Tech companies have accepted the fact that they do not have to give up their revenue generation strategies. They can still make use of the benefits from the advertisements that fuel the web. All they have to do is to meet halfway between privacy and revenue generation. This could be considered as a marginal enhancement, but could also signal the start of a better dialogue on privacy.

Google’s Keep My Opt-Outs extension can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store for free. It has features that will give users significant control over their own data. Mozilla wants to soon follow with the release of a similar tool for Firefox. The distinction is that Mozilla will base it on the Do Not Track HTTP header. Mozilla has yet to publicize the exact date for the technology to be integrated with its Firefox browser.

It could be seen that the three large tech companies are using separate approaches in their privacy tools. However, all of these are attempts at giving more privacy to internet users. It is too early to tell which among the three approaches will rule, or which one will turn out to be ineffective. Being open to dialogue on privacy matters is one good thing that is indicated by this development. Further developments can be expected in the remaining days of 2011. Consumers can anticipate a more reliable protection of their personal information.

So how do you make certain that all private information stays private on the Internet? Use an anonymous proxy to hide your IP address and protect your Internet identity.

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