OptOutCode Easy Device Opt vs Protect My Choices

Saying “No” to commercial surveillance is as easy as renaming your device & our app makes it even easier! Invented by Privacy4Cars, OptOutCode is a new Universal Opt-Out Mechanism that only requires to add the prefix 0$S = Do Not (zero) Sell (dollar) or Share (capital letter S) as the first three letters of the name of consumers’ smartphones, computers, and wi-fi router. More info at https://optoutcode.com/ OptOutCode has four distinguishing advantages: 1. It is truly Universal: OptOutCode is compatible with smartphones, laptops, tablets,routers, the apps that run on them and the IoTs they connect to, including vehicles, smart appliances, tracking beacons, and more. 2. It’s fully decentralized: OptOutCode does not require to build, maintain, query, or secure a central database of opting-out users, devices, or apps. The signal is detected locally: either by the programs and apps running on the device that has OptOutCode turned on (e.g., an app on a smartphone), or by other devices that connect to the device of the Consumer that has OptOutCode turned on (e.g. a SmartTV connected to a Wi-Fi router with OptOutCode on, a fitness watch connected to a smartphone with OptOutCode on). This architecture makes it privacy-preserving, more secure, without a single point of failure, cheaper, and faster. 3. It’s Consumer-friendly: All Consumers need to do to turn on OptOutCode is simply rename their devices by adding “0$S” as the first three characters. For instance, rename their phone from “My Phone” to “0$S My Phone”. Most Consumers can do it themselves by going through the settings of their devices in less than a minute, but we have also written code to automate the task of turning OptOutCode on or off with a simple “switch” on an app. 4. It’s business-friendly: Businesses can easily read and parse the “0$S” opt-out code from each device using backward-compatible and future proof protocols that require no special authorizations. We want to thank Professor Sebastian Zimmeck of Wesleyan University (credited with inventing GPC) for recently pointing out to us that Google has a somewhat similar protocol to allow users to opt-out of their Wi-Fi routers’ signals to be used by Google Maps, providing an independent industry validation that a portion of the name of a device can be used as an opt-out signal. This app has three purposes: 1. It makes it even easier for consumers to turn on OptOutCode on their iOS devices 2. It demonstrates how easy it is for companies who make apps (social media, gaming, dating, mapping, etc.) to detect OptOutCode and understand that consumer wants to opt-out of targeted advertising and other privacy-invading AdTech. Similarly, it demonstrates how easy it is for companies who make and/or deploy IoTs that connect to devices with OptOutCode to respect the privacy of those users. 3. It offers companies who want to promote privacy a simple way to integrate the OptOutCode “switch” into their own apps (we also created a banner they can add to their websites to help their web visitors enable Global Privacy Control (a Universal Opt-Out Mechanism for browsers) and OptOutCode to extend their protections beyond to web to apps and IoTs they connect to.

The AdChoices Protect My Choices (PMC) extension helps preserve the opt-out choices you set on the Digital Advertising Alliance's WebChoices consumer choice tool. The WebChoices tool uses cookies to store the choices you make on some browsers, and the PMC is designed to prevent the accidental deletion of those cookies. New features in the PMC 2.0 (beta) extends your choices beyond cookies, so companies can honor your choices and preferences via a browser-based signal that does not require third-party cookies. Some Things You Should Know • The Protect My Choices extension will not block ads. • Protect My Choices applies to the choices and preferences made through the WebChoices tool, which apply to interest-based advertising and other applicable uses of data by DAA participating companies. Once you install the extension, you will still receive other types of online advertising from participating companies, and the websites you visit may still collect information for other purposes, consistent with DAA Principles. • As more companies join the DAA’s industry self-regulatory program, their opt-outs will be added to the Protect My Choices browser extensions. We suggest you pin the extension to your browser. Industry support for the new features will change over time as more and more companies adopt technology for responding to non-cookie-based choices and preferences. Please visit the Protect My Choices Extension periodically to review your choices or to update your choices to include new participating companies. • The DAA program requires participating companies to clearly inform consumers about their data collection practices and to enable consumers to exercise control for interest-based ads. The DAA’s choice tools (WebChoices, Protect My Choices, YourAdChoices Token Tool, and AppChoices) serve as central elements of the program by offering consumers transparency around companies engaged in interest-based advertising and the ability to exercise choice from participating companies through a consistent, simple user experience. • These extensions and your choices and preferences apply only in the specific browser in which they were set or installed, so you should separately set your preferences for other browsers and for other devices you may use. • The DAA tools use a short-duration first-party cookie (i.e. a cookie set by the website you are visiting) to allow the PMC to read and store your requests. Thus, first-party cookies must be supported by your browser for the PMC to read any choices or preferences made using our tools. First-party cookies are standard for all major browsers, unless you have customized your settings. Please note that the first-party cookie expires within seven days, please install the PMC as soon as possible. • Installing the PMC without expressing your choices through DAA tools will not transmit or make those choices or preferences available to companies. Deleting, uninstalling or not updating the PMC may result in your requests not being readable. If you are updating from PMC 1.0 to PMC 2, prior selections will be automatically imported. • The use of these browser extensions is governed by the Terms of Use and their individual licenses.