In December, the Federal Trade Commission called for a way for consumers to block monitoring of their Internet browsing and buying habits by online advertising firms.

It has now been more than four months since the appeal to browser makers to build tracking blocking into their products and the first generation of software is available.

But if the FTC envisioned a "do not track" effort as strong and effective as the government's "do not call" list, there is a long way to go.

Most tracking is done by businesses that want to do targeted advertising or collect the information and sell it.

For example, if an advertiser knew you visited the Bowling Hall of Fame site regularly, it might try to show you ads for bowling balls or bowling shoes.

Tracking is done by a website depositing a snippet of text called a cookie in your browser. This cookie can then report back sites you visit. There is no indication to you that the tracking is happening. You can delete all cookies from your browser after every session on the Internet, but that's a pain and some cookies are useful.

Many people consider tracking an outright invasion of privacy, but businesses that do tracking argue that the practice is good for consumers because the ads they see are more likely to interest them.

Three browsers -- Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4 and Chrome 10, the newest versions of each -- now have "do not track" features, but, as so often in tech, they all do it differently. Apple's Safari browser does not seem to offer the feature yet.

The browsers all have the same Achilles' heel -- they depend on businesses that do the tracking to voluntarily honor the nontracking request.

Complying is entirely voluntary on the part of the advertisers. But no advertiser who depends on targeted advertising or sells tracking information wants to voluntarily kill business.

Even companies like Google, where targeted ads are part of a bigger business, would not be eager to participate.

Also, the feature is not turned on by default, so the user has to do it -- not a straightforward task.

In Microsoft's new IE9, under the tools button and "safety" option, there is a "tracking protection option." Once you turn this on, you will be required to select a list of sites you want to block from tracking. You can enter your own, let Internet Explorer generate a list as you browse or follow a link to download a pre-made list.

In Mozilla Firefox 4.0, under the Firefox tab at the upper left, you must click "options," then "advanced" and select, "Tell websites I do not want to be tracked."

This turns on a "do not track" header. The problem is that few websites currently recognize this header.

You can get extra protection by installing an add-on called AdBlockPlus.

In Google Chrome 10, you have to go to chrome.google.com/webstore and download the "Keep My Opt Outs" extension. After it's installed, follow the link to aboutads.info.choices and follow the directions to choose the sites you want to block.

(If you want full instructions on how to turn on "do not track" in any browser in either Windows or Mac, go to TechMan's blog at post-gazette.com/techman. In the entry "Turning on do not track," there is a link to complete instructions, which are too long to print here.)

Simple, eh?

Somehow I don't think this is what the FTC had in mind.

To be fair, more companies that deal in "online behavioral advertising," as targeted ads are officially known, will likely start to honor no-track headers.

But the industry does not support making it easy to opt out. The New York Times quoted Mike Zaneis of the Interactive Advertising Bureau as saying, "If your goal is to have a red flashing icon that says, 'Click here to opt out of targeting,' and to incentivize people to opt out, then we don't share that goal."

(If you want to opt out of behavioral advertising from some companies directly, there is an industry consortium website at aboutads.info/choices/ that will allow you to do so.)

The FTC has said its call for a "do not track" system is not an appeal for legislation, but there already has been at least one congressional hearing on the subject.

Calling for legislation along the lines of the "do not call" list is the club that the FTC holds behind its back.

First Published: April 17, 2011, 4:00 a.m.