Two years after launching DNT — which enabled users to opt out of their Web surfing being anonymously tracked for advertising purposes — such settings will no longer be enabled by the search engine firm as it seeks to “provide our users with a highly personalized experience.”

“As the first major tech company to implement Do Not Track, we’ve been at the heart of conversations surrounding how to develop the most user-friendly standard,” Yahoo said in a recent blog post. “However, we have yet to see a single standard emerge that is effective, easy to use and has been adopted by the broader tech industry.”

Yahoo said users can still manage their privacy via its tools in the Yahoo Privacy Center “while benefiting from a personalized Web experience.”

“The privacy of our users is and will continue to be a top priority for us,” Yahoo said.

Some privacy watch dogs are crying foul, however.

“Yahoo’s decision to flatly ignore users’ Do Not Track requests is a scandal,” Peter Eckersley, Technology Projects Director for the privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation.said. “Everyone needs to understand that his applies  not just to Yahoo and Flickr and Tumblr, and to the giant network of ads that Yahoo operates across the Web.  Every time you see one of those, it sees you too, and tracks you.”

This EFF has debuted Privacy Badger, a new software tool that blocks online tracking for users who enabled the now defunct no-tracking.