DNT (Do Not Track) has been an Internet standard that consumers can activate to prevent sites from secretly following and recording their online activities. But, despite DNT, many unprincipled advertisers continue to clandestinely track and record users’ Internet activity. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), privacy company Disconnect and a group of Internet companies decided it was time to combine their resources to develop a stronger DNT setting.

The EFF website notes that “DNT is a preference you can set on Firefox, Chrome, or other Web browsers as well as in the iOS and Firefox OS mobile operating systems to signal to websites that you want to opt-out of tracking of your online activities.”

According to Engadget, EFF has partnered with ad/tracker blocking extension Adblock, publishing site Medium, analytics service Mixpanel and private search engine DuckDuckGo. The new standard varies the degree of its aggressiveness in blocking communications with a site depending on whether the domain operator states that DNT is in place.

“The new DNT standard is not an ad- or tracker-blocker, but it works in tandem with these technologies,” says EFF.

Disconnect chief executive Casey Oppenheim said to EFF that “the failure of the ad industry and privacy groups to reach a compromise on DNT has led to a viral surge in ad blocking, massive losses for Internet companies dependent on ad revenue, and increasingly malicious methods of tracking users and surfacing advertisements online.”

“Our hope is that this new DNT approach will protect a consumer’s right to privacy and incentivize advertisers to respect user choice, paving a path that allows privacy and advertising to coexist,” he says.