Microsoft launches privacy aid

Computer industry giant Microsoft has launched a new internet browser, a market hotly contested and fiercely protected by those in the game, that offers an attractive feature allowing users to protect information on the sites they have visited.

Internet Explorer 8, as the browser is known, incorporates ‘InPrivate’ as an option, and when activated the device ‘hides’ the addresses of visited sites from other users on the same computer.
    

Privacy a major concern

The function has already received the trade nickname ‘porn mode’, in reference to the ubiquitous adult content available across the internet, and although personal users will find their user history protected from other users, Microsoft is obliged to allow the system to be over-ridden by such as police forces and other official authorities.

The new system, popular with campaigners for personal privacy, is a worry for the biggest player in the web-search world, namely Google.
    

Data collection from your browser

Google are market leaders in the industry as their browser enables marketing organisations to target users according to the type and frequency of sites they visit, information ‘collected’ by the Google browser and relayed to interested parties.   

As Internet Explorer 8, with InPrivate activated, effectively blanks out this information, those wishing for greater privacy will be more inclined to opt for the Microsoft product, giving Google a potential headache.

The market for Internet advertising is vast and growing, with an estimated worth of $40 billion this year, and the leading players – Google and Microsoft, plus rival Yahoo! – are in a fierce battle to secure the biggest chunk of the returns.
    

Microsoft offer for Yahoo! rejected

An approach by Microsoft to buy Yahoo! earlier this year, in which the former offered a value of over 70 percent more than the market value of Yahoo!, was seen as a move by Microsoft top take on Google. The offer was rejected, however.

Google has repeatedly been on the receiving end of criticism over the data collecting methods it uses within its browser service, and the privacy argument is growing among internet users.

In a move seen as highlighting the problems of privacy, Yahoo! came under serious fire recently after releasing data on users to the Chinese government, a move that led to arrest of ‘dissidents’ and writers and lengthy jail sentences for some as a result. Human rights campaigners hailed this as one of the evils of the internet browser problem.

Internet Explorer 8 offers an antidote to the problem, and the market will be observed very closely in the months to come.