Microsoft to protect furtive web searches
IE porn medical research mode
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Microsoft's been accused of many things in its time, but guardian of porn hunters has never been one. That could change with Internet Explorer 8, however.
The company has applied for two trademarks in the US that if granted could hide where you've been and what it is you've been looking at with Microsoft's browser. IE could thus join Safari in allowing a feature affectionately known as "porn mode".
Blogger Long Zheng picked up two filings from Microsoft for Cleartracks and Inprivate. Cleartracks would potentially delete your viewing history, and Inprivate would disable history and file caching and tell you if your viewing activities are being tracked.
Naturally, there's a perfectly innocent explanation for wanting to view content in private and to call such a feature "porn mode" is a gross simplification, according to browser experts at Mozilla.
Privacy can help if you want to research, ahem, a "medical condition" - and don't want the person you're with logging on to your machine and finding out. The same thing goes for someone trying to hide the purchase of, say, an engagement ring. Also, you might want to take precautions when sharing a PC with complete strangers in an internet cafe.
Microsoft has refused to comment on features in IE 8, beyond what it's already discussed. A second, "consumer-focused" beta is due this month. Microsoft released code targeting developers in the spring. ®
*Correction: Microsoft filed for two trademarks, not patents, as we originally wrote.
COMMENTS
@A J Stiles
How many home users acutally have different profiles for each user?
And if they do, why?
What gives?
Surely if the computer is shared, each user will have their own account and be unable to view anything in any other user's account (there's been this little utility called "chmod" in most operating systems for awhile now; surely to goodness Windows has something like it) ?
It won't keep the root user out, but then that's why Iceweasel has a "clear private data" option.
Anyway, if this doesn't get rejected on the grounds of obviety (even to Paris Hilton) then the entire staff of the USPTO need to be terminated with extreme prejudice.
Doubtful
I don't believe it, MS is probably doing what they always have, trying to create a perception and belief about something that isn't real.
I think what they mean is "we're trying more than ever to hide access to an owner's system, but the data is still there as always".
Past track record shows this, you can't even browse history or cookies like normal files because they deliberately too steps to prevent it.
Sorry MS, don't feed me your BS, fix your past mistakes before you can ever expect confidence in future (anything).
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