Need to Surf in Private? Turn on “Porn Mode”!
IE8 ‘In Private’ browser privacy functions have put the cat among the pigeons in the online advertising world.
Stealth browsing is a must have for security conscious Internet users. Dubbed “Porn Mode” by the media, switching off your browsers ability to record anything you do online including checking your webmail or logging onto your bank account on public or shared computers.
On-line advertising giant Google, who themselves offer a secure browsing mode in their own Chrome browser, may be adversely affected by this surge of private browsing. Using data collected from browsers, Google can profile internet users and target advertising more effectively. Having bought ad serving company DoubleClick for $3.1 billion earlier this year, the last thing they will want is to lose that type of data.
The feature is already available on Apple’s Safari browser, yet the privacy function that is causing the biggest stir is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 ‘InPrivate’ functionality. Normally, with any other browser, to get rid of a browsing trail a user would need to remove all of their search and browsing history and cookies, including sites they wanted to keep. Microsoft however is allowing users to delete or block just selected cookies and leave the ones they want. The function will allow users to receive warnings about websites that are planting cookies in order to track them online and give the user a choice to block them.
Users employing the InPrivate mode can review a list of companies trying to collect data and also subscribe to lists of websites which they can permit or block.
Internet explorer is the most widely used browser in the world and if there is widespread adoption of the InPrivate functionality it could spell trouble for a vast amount of Ad serving companies who produce revenues from the browsing data.
Similar functionality will be available in Firefox 3.1.
To download or For a full list of Intenet Explorer 8 features go here
For ZDNET’s report in IE8 beta 2 go here
Tags: ad serving, apple safari, cookie blocking, doubleclick, firefox 3.1, Google, IE8, internet explorer 8, porn mode, Privacy
