[Responder] Roy Fielding
I object to this option. The new definition of tracking makes distinctions between first and third party design obsolete. A resource that is not tracking will respond as "N" in the TSV, which excludes the collection of data about other contexts. This means that the resource is either only used in one context (first-party) and never shares the data outside of that context, or doesn't collect any data about a particular user in other contexts. Either way, it isn't tracking and thus not subject to qualifiers. A resource that might be tracking (or that later allows use or retention of the data received via that resource in a way that might result in a particular user's activity being observed across multiple distinct contexts) will respond as "T". Why would a resource that is designed only for use in a first-party context ever respond with "T"? The only reason I can think of is that the resource is designed for use on only one site, but shares the received data with other parties in a way that allows the particular user to be tracked. If so, why would the user consider that use of "1" to be better than a "3"? The distinction between "1" and "3" was added at a time when we were effectively saying that any tracking by a first party was okay provided that the data is not shared with third parties. What we are now saying is that collecting data about a user's activity across multiple distinct contexts is tracking, whether or not the user is intentionally interacting with that party. Hence, knowing the user's intent is no longer relevant to the definition of tracking, which means that the first party distinction is no longer relevant to the user (aside from how it impacts the boundaries of a given context). TPE does not need definitions of first or third party in order to describe the protocol. The current usage of those terms in TPE is legacy commentary that will be removed once we are clear on direction from the WG. This does not prevent the same terms from being defined and used within a given compliance regime, nor from being communicated in the TPE's qualifiers field after they have been appropriately defined by a compliance specification.