Global Privacy Control Popularity Grows as Legal Status Up in Air

Global Privacy Control, a way for consumers to signal privacy preferences to a host of websites without manually reaching out to each one, is gaining traction.

A handful of internet browsers offer the tool, and California’s attorney general indicated the tool could be used to comply with the state’s privacy law. But its ability to satisfy privacy statutes on the books in Virginia and Europe is less certain.

Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox, one of the country’s most popular browsers, released Global Privacy Control in December for people to turn on if they wish after rolling it out experimentally earlier this year. ...