Posted on 09/16/2008 12:05:50 PM PDT by ShadowAce
Microsoft Corp. today defended the Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) tool that suggests sites based on the URLs typed into its address bar, saying that the browser "phones home" only a limited amount of information to Microsoft and that the company discards all user IP addresses almost immediately.
Company managers also contrasted IE8 Beta 2's "Suggested Sites" feature with the "Suggest" feature used by rival Google Inc. in its Chrome browser, saying that Microsoft's browser requires the user's explicit permission before it's used. They did, however, acknowledge a bug that prevents the request from reappearing when users reinstalled the browser.
"We capture as little uniquely identifiable information as possible," said Cyra Richardson, a Microsoft principal program manager on the IE team. "We capture the URL that the user is visiting, the version of the browser and general locale information."
To determine the latter, and to know where to send the suggested site results, Microsoft also captures the IP address of the user, said Richardson. But unlike Google, Microsoft tosses the IP address as soon as it delivers the recommendations. "We take the IP address, get all the information that we need from it and then throw out the address," said Andy Zeigler, a program manager with the IE group. Richardson confirmed that the Suggested Sites database contained no user IP addresses.
That's in contrast to Google, which keeps the data associated with about 2% of the entries in Chrome's OmniBox, a combination address and search box that logs all keystrokes and sends them to Google so that the search company can return a list of related search queries and Web sites.
Earlier this week, Google announced it would "anonymize" all information, including the IP addresses,
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
Firefox is looking much better — the megalomania of MS and other big operations is becoming far too invasive, IMHO. No thanks.
MicroSoft is an evil entity.
I just bought a Apple Mac-book. It runs Safari as the web browser. It is a FANTASTIC machine. Like stepping into a Lexus instead of a Yugo.
Congratulations. I’ve had mine for a few months and still love it. It just works.
so is goooogle...
I think there is a shareware program out there that deletes Google cookies, but its free for only 30 days.
Anyone have a free one or one an addon to Firefox??
I have a Apple Store very close to me, and that is where I bought my laptop. It is incredible how much business they are doing. You literally have to stand in line, put your name on a list, and wait for a sales rep to get free to help you. I bought a software package “Parallel” that creates a virtual machine within the Mac. You can replicate you current Windows computer into the virtual space. It runs Windows, better than a dedicated machine. I was surprised. The over build quality of the Apple hardware is excellent.
bookmark
Firefox phones home too. Modern browsers just need to do that in order to provide certain features. The question is do you trust who they’re phoning home to.
With Firefox though you could check the code to see if they’re telling the truth about what the browser sends. You can also sniff the network traffic for any browser. What you can’t check is whether they retain data such as IP addresses at the other end.
TOR
just tell firefox that google is forbidden to set cookies. you don”t need an add on. now one good add-on, in case you don’t have it is: NoScript. Granular control of javascript on web pages. You can forbid google-analytics but allow the main site script to run.
I’m still on IE6, and Media Player 10. They work fine, so I will stick with them. The newer Media Player is a POS — Media Player 10 works fine. M-slop no longer makes any changes that improve the user’s experience, so no new offerings from them for me.
Every couple of months, I go thru the available Windoze updates, and just pick and choose — usually just security updates, nothing else.
Forgot that Firefox can block cookies; thanks for reminding me. Got rid of my Google cookies and blocked them from reappearing. I use Noscript already.
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