Reddit to start honoring Do Not Track requests

Reddit will start honoring some Do Not Track requests in 2016, the company said Friday.

Users can activate Do Not Track in the three most popular Web browsers — Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox — and essentially ask websites not to install or run tools that let advertisers monitor their behavior.

Reddit made the announcement in a post on one of its forums.

{mosads}“If you have Do Not Track enabled, we will not load any third-party analytics,” CEO Steve Huffman said.

He also indicated there were more changes to come, telling users that the company would “keep you informed as we develop more uses for it in the future.”

Responding to a user comment about the policy change, Huffman praised the Do Not Track standard generally.

“It’s too bad it’s not more widely supported around the web, but it fits us nicely,” he said.

Indeed, very few websites honor the requests — a vexing issue for privacy advocates.

In June, the group Consumer Watchdog asked the Federal Communications Commission to require companies such as YouTube, Facebook and Google to honor Do Not Track requests. The commission decided this month not to grant the group’s petition.

In his statement on Friday, Huffman said he was devoted to protecting user privacy.

The company will also now store IP addresses for a longer length of time under revisions to its privacy policy, he said. But he said he believed at some point the company would be able to achieve its aims without storing the addresses at all.

The updates to the website’s privacy policy will be made effective on Jan. 1.