Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) browser includes a keystroke-logging search suggestion tool similar to the one that Google modified Monday after coming under fire from consumers.
Unlike Chrome, IE8 Beta 2 does not enable the feature -- which some have compared to a keylogger -- by default. One privacy expert said that was a "huge difference."
According to IE8's revised privacy statement, Microsoft's beta browser contains a new feature, dubbed "Suggested Sites," that sends the addresses of visited sites and other information to the company's servers.
Suggested Sites is similar to the "Google Suggest" tool in Google's Chrome browser, and is designed to recommend the most likely destination sites based on what the user types, the popularity of sites and Microsoft's own algorithm.
On Monday, Google reacted to criticism of the feature by promising it would render the data it collects anonymous within 24 hours.
By comparison, Microsoft's privacy statement does not spell out how long the Suggest Sites data is kept, and when, if at all, the company "anonymizes" that data.
The company does, however, go into some detail about what it collects. "When Suggested Sites is turned on, the addresses of websites you visit are sent to Microsoft, together with some standard information from your computer such as IP address, browser type, regional and language settings," the privacy statement reads. Other data that Search Sites collects includes the time that sites were visited, which site referred the user to the destination site and how long the user was at the destination site.
"This information, along with the website addresses and past history, will be used to personalize your experience, as well as improve the quality of our products and services," the statement continued. "Microsoft will not use any information collected to identify, contact or target advertising to you."
Alissa Cooper, the chief computer scientist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, expressed concerns about the IE8 suggestion tool, as she did yesterday about Google's Chrome. "The things you type when you search for something are going back to the provider and can be quite revealing," she said, noting that most users understand that. "But [Chrome's] OmniBox and IE8's Suggested Search capture everything in one space, not only searches but all the Web sites that you would be typing into the box. So they'll know even more about you."
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I am glad I haven't downloaded either IE8 or Chrome......don't be evil? Yeah, right.
For some reason people keep forgetting that "cool" personalized software normally requires giving up data, perhaps data which you may not be comfortable giving up.
IE8 Beta 2 is clearly a beta product and given some of install glitches, I highly doubt its userbase is anywhere near Google Chrome. Plus, Google Chrome has been being pushed out like a escort service in Las Vegas for the past two weeks. You have people using Google Chrome that think a sandbox is something in their backyard...
Google told us that Chrome was Beta, but then again Google tells us everything it creates is a Beta...and most of the time, it is Beta for years (i.e. Gmail).
Another example of Google abusing the "Beta" tag? I think so...
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