Anyone perusing porn sites at home will appreciate Microsoft’s latest efforts at browser privacy, but it’s not clear it will do much for the enterprise. Internet Explorer product manager Andrew Ziegler discussed the new privacy features of IE8, currently in its second beta, in an extensive blog post Monday. Users of the new software will be able to turn on Microsoft’s InPrivate Browsing and Blocking features.
When what many observers are calling “porn mode” is turned on, IE8 doesn’t store history, cookies, form data, passwords, URLs, search queries or visited links.
Ziegler suggested the need for such privacy is completely on the up-and-up. “Maybe you need to buy a gift for a loved one without ruining the surprise,” he wrote. “Maybe you’re at an Internet kiosk and don’t want the next person using it to know at which Web site you bank.”
While the problem of clearing sensitive passwords on public machines is real, observers say the hands-down, number-one reason most people would want to clear history, URLs and search queries is to erase signs of pornography viewing. “The most likely situation is the obvious one. Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more,” said Ars Technica. “Microsoft dishes dirt on IE8 ‘prOn mode,'” British Web site the Register smirked.
People can do what they want at home, but enterprises need to know where people are surfing at work. Porn surfing can expose a corporation to liability for sexual harassment, and managers obviously need to know employees are working.
“The enterprise is more concerned with keeping user information guarded from untrusted Web sites than making sure your off-business Internet habits are kept secret,” said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security, in an e-mail. “The features so far described by Microsoft seem to fall more squarely into the…