RSSMicrosoft trademark apps hint at 'private' browsing in IE
By Ed Oswald | Published August 20, 2008, 6:06 PM
Bloggers have uncovered paperwork for two possible applications from Microsoft having to do with keeping the details of a user's browsing session private.
Critics of what could become a critical feature for Internet Explorer 8 have derided the idea of a built-in privacy feature for erasing histories and other trace elements, as nothing more than a "porn mode," allowing for surfers to cover their tracks if they are viewing questionable content. However, Mozilla -- which was set to include the feature in Firefox 3, but later pulled it -- argued for its legitimate uses.
"That this is the only reason that users need private browsing trivializes the overall feature," Mozilla said in describing the feature. "For instance, users may wish to begin a private browsing session to research a medical condition, or plan a surprise vacation or birthday party for a loved one."
Microsoft might see some validity in Mozilla's argument, if its trademark applications are any indication. The two marks applied for potential future computer programs called "Cleartracks" and "Inprivate."
According to the filing for Cleartracks, it is described as "computer programs for accessing and using the Internet and the world wide web; and computer programs for deleting search history after accessing websites."
Inprivate looks like it would similarly conceal history, though it appears to deal with more of the caching features of the browser. The mark would be used for "computer programs for accessing and using the Internet and the world wide web; computer programs for disabling the history and file caching features of a web browser; and computer software for notifying a user of a web browser when others are tracking web use and for controlling the information others can access about such use."
Both applications were filed on July 30, but have apparently not yet been assigned to an examining attorney. Just because Microsoft filed for these trademarks does not necessarily mean the new functionality will appear in the next beta of Internet Explorer, which the company has said would be released sometime this month. Microsoft has made no public comment on the appearance of a feature by either of these names.
Apple's Safari browser already has such a mode, and has had it since 2005. To activate it, a user clicks "Private Browsing" under the Safari menu within Mac OS X.
A hint that private browsing in IE8 could be forthcoming can be found in a June 2008 blog post from the IE team. In talking about trustworthy browsing, IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch said the challenge of privacy "is notifying users clearly about what sites they're disclosing information to and enabling them to control that disclosure if they choose."
Details of the trademark filings were first reported by Istartedsomething's Long Zheng on Wednesday. Zheng has occasionally made appearances as a speaker on behalf of Microsoft technologies, at conferences such as TechEd.
Here on winXP "private browsing" is in the "edit"
menu (safari 3.1).
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|Gee mom, why is this an issue that the browser developer needs to debate instead of the end user?
Flush the local files and there are still plenty of forensic traces in the routers, etc! This is a Tor light.
The feature should be there for end users. If corporate environments do not like it, they should be able to disable the feature or simply not use it.
But, in any event, I don't need corporations determining what or why I might use the feature.
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|You must be confusing me with someone else.
I'm not your mother.
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|Yea, just because he is sleeping with your dad does not make him your mother.
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|But gee whiz, when your head is down in that position, you look just like her.
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|I think there are legitimate reasons to kill history and cookies/temp files for browsing:
1) Viruses that are downloaded via exploits
2) medical privacy
3) abused spouses researching ways to escape a relationship by searching for laws and attourneys before making their move
4) doing a quick hit on your webmail in an overly-restrictive/paranoid work environment (I've seen places that would fire someone for hitting Gmail/hotmail/yahoo mail, or even surfing outside the intranet itself without permission, it happens).
These are just a small number of instances where clearing your tracks would help.
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|So why would you not clear history, Offline files (temp directory), and tracking cookies off your machine anyway? I know I clean it most of the time. maybe not cookies... but certainly everything else. Cookies too if its not my machine that I am doing something on.
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|I use private mode when I don't want to mess up my history if I'm researching something that's not work specific =). It's a great feature and the one thing that Safari offers that I don't understand why no one else has take to.
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|Agreed. So what if their looking at porn? Unless their doing it at home, I guarantee the admins at work are going to know a-l-l-l about it - "Cleartracks" or not. Heck, just putting this feature into IE will probably entrap a ton of people who think they can get away with such nonsense on the job. The only downside I can see here is some loss of sales for shareware privacy apps (although there's probably freeware that does everything they can do).
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|Anyone looking up porn at work is just completely stupid.
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|Agreed
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|well yea, at work the IT folks can track it as it happens. Its really kind of simple to get activity logs as its happening as its routed through the network. No matter that the employ clears everything incriminating from their machine. The logs will show the activity if its looked up on the server. I mean thats a given. Its their network so they are stupid if they do not monitor what happens on it. So yea. Don't be so foolish. lol
I will give a hint to people that do want to do some weird stuff at work. Use remote desktop to your home machine. its makes it a kind of proxies resulting in your home machine going to whatever but your local machine in SOME (I repeat SOME) cases the activity log would just show a connection to a private IP address resolving to your Home IP. Most companies allow such activities to allow for Remote computing when at home and visa versa. But Other companies are VERY VERY strict on remote connections. so it all depends...
I use my remote connection a lot at work, for monitoring the house, for working on projects at home when I am on downtime. I have to live up there on site at times so yea Remote desktop for me is pretty nice so I can download tv shows and stuff at home from my DVR. Then when I get home and have my two week off, I got all kinds of goodies to watch. and things to do that I have been working on preparing for while I was up on the slope.
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|You can bet this will simply cause all ports to be locked on the corporate firewall. Nothing but port 80 will get through for the standard user once they get wind of someone pulling a stunt like that.
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|Auw you know how to get by that PC_Tool ;)
Set Up Remote Desktop Web Connection with Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com...t/northrup_03may16.mspx
Just a matter of setting it up correctly to get through the corporate router. Yea if I wasn't in IT they would HATE me in my company. I always find a way lol...
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|I am not convinced you can run the Remote Desktop entirely on port 80. Recently tried Live Mesh remote and they manage to kill it. Haven't attempted work-arounds for a while though.
Anyway, a company that cares about it or is under regulatory obligation doesn't simply rely on restricting ports.
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|Unless you are using tor/privoxy or a proxy that doesn't keep logs, you ain't doing jack to keep your privacy using this... even then tor has the issue of trust for onion routers as an issue as well.
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|I believe the point of these apps/features is to conceal activity on the local machine in terms of logs/temp files. The idea has never been to make your computer unidentifiable on the Internet.
That really requires a VPN/SSH tunnel to a proxy server that has no logging.
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|At least it can help when the TSA is searching your laptop at the border...
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|"Critics of what could become a critical feature for Internet Explorer 8 have derided the idea of a built-in privacy feature for erasing histories and other trace elements, as nothing more than a "porn mode," allowing for surfers to cover their tracks if they are viewing questionable content. However, Mozilla -- which was set to include the feature in Firefox 3, but later pulled it -- argued for its legitimate uses."
lol come on. its legal. some people may use it for illigal causes but not all.
Edit: Seriously, even Safari has it. Stop hesitating. FF needs it as well as IE.
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