Do you want advertisers keeping track of you, the better to sell you things? What sort of anti-capitalist eccentric would not? Despite this, Microsoft has decided to make “do not track” the default setting on its next-generation web browser. Unless its user specifies otherwise, the software will send a message to any website visited, requesting that the site not record the user’s movements and tailor online ads accordingly.

Advertising industry groups are unenthusiastic. They complain that Microsoft’s policy might “undercut thriving business models, and reduce the availability [of] Internet products” and lead to “untargeted, irrelevant online advertising”.

These are hilariously bad arguments. Undercutting thriving business models is exactly what technology companies should do. Microsoft’s job is not to make sure that rival software designers and internet publishers make money; it is to make its own software as appealing as possible.