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IE6 to Implement W3C Privacy Standard

Arthur Phillip Dent writes: "News.com is running a story about IE6 being the first browser to implement the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) standard. Bad news for Doubleclick et. al., that is unless it's just /.ers using the features! This will get real interesting if lusers' using it with sites that do not post P3P policies (and thereby blocking sites from setting cookies, for example) creates any kind of unrest/discussion about the exchange of marketing data for content and functionality." One thing no one writing about IE6 seems to note: Microsoft has carefully arranged their MSN cookie setting technique to avoid being blocked by their own browser - they bounce people through msn.com to log in to any Microsoft property, so it's always a "first-party" cookie being sent/placed.

198 comments

  1. Web Bugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This is especially bad news for Slashdot, because

    1) Slashdot uses web bugs to track your browsing habits
    2) Most Slashdot users use Internet Explorer
    3) Blocking Slashdot's web bugs will cause thier stock price to fall even farther.

    1. Re:Web Bugs by michaelo · · Score: 1

      2) Most Slashdot users use Internet Explorer
      Do they? Really? I really didnt thought this.. do you have some statistics about this?
      J.

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      Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earthbound misfit, I.
    2. Re:Web Bugs by kilgore_47 · · Score: 1

      I prefer iCab.

      (no, i'm not serious!)

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    3. Re:Web Bugs by damiam · · Score: 1

      I'd say about 15% of ./ viewers use IE, out of which about half won't upgrade because of smart tags, XP, moral reasons, etc.

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      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  2. lies, damn lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Microsoft has carefully arranged their MSN cookie setting technique to avoid being blocked by their own browser - they bounce people through msn.com to log in to any Microsoft property, so it's always a "first-party" cookie being sent/placed.

    in other words, this is what EVERONE will do once IE6 is released, and the whole P3P standard will be worthless. it's just a gimmick to make paranoid Tech TV-watching lusers feel safe.

  3. Re:First Party Cookies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Uh... no. Because of the eloquence of that post, combined with it's total, utter wrongness... i'm led to believe that you work for microsoft.

    Although there may not be technical reasons to provid multiple access points to the same login database, there are absolutely privacy reasons to maintain multiple login databases. Just because i access M$ knowledgebase information doesn't mean that i want "special offers" to subscribe to MSN internet access.

    Conglomerate corperations with any respect for their customers privacy should NOT be sharing personal indentifying information between divisions. There is no basis to assume that the customer would want that, period. And microsoft isn't being honest about anything by doing automatic browse redirects through a centralied data mining server. That's crap.

  4. Re:riiiight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Asking someone who doesn't know how to code to change Mozilla's source is like asking someone who DOES know how to code to change Internet Explorer.

  5. CSS is bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why do we want our browser to support CSS? Don't you care about how the RIAA sued and imprisoned Kevin Mitnick for writing DeCSS? And their support of the UCITA copyright bill?! Don't let them put DVD region control on the web! - Uberhacker

  6. Re:Great... some real innovation! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Point 7 on http://www.mozilla.org/wishlist-faq.html

    Advertisement Blockers
    There are various ways you can do this already, and it will probably possible to write a Mozilla plugin to do this. However, this proposal is very badly thought out as it will reduce the revenues that web sites get from advertising, which keep the majority of the web free of charge. Hence it is unlikely this will every appear in Mozilla or Communicator.
    This may eventually appear indirectly however, since things such as preventing popup windows and having preferences differ on a site-by-site basis can achieve this (these are above).

  7. Re:All I want ina browser... Most of it you CAN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    In Internet Explorer: 1-Tools/Internet Options/Security 2-Click the "Restricted sites" icon 3-Click the "custom level" button 4-Change your settings, disable javascript, cookies, ect, click OK 5-Use the "Sites..." button to add sites you want these settings to be applied to great for blocking cookies, geocities's annoying scripts, ect ect

  8. Re:*sigh* by Alan · · Score: 2

    The only thing you get to see on their site is a 404. You can't even get to a contact page, much less a text version of the website. Another site is ctvnews.com. They have the standard "this page won't look good under browsers that aren't ie on windows", but the still let you continue on to see the site (which renders fine thankyouverymuch). That's all I ask.

    From what I saw of the shockwave site if they did let you view it on a non-ie/win browser you'd see the page, just fine, and two empty squares where the plugin is missing. It's not even that they have their entire page in shockwave or something lame like that.

    That's the sort of stuff that just pisses me right off.

  9. Re:*sigh* by Alan · · Score: 2

    I disagree. If part of the HTML standard from the beginning had been that the browser was not allowed to identify itself, then the whole divergence of browsers would not have (possibly) happened, because everyone would be on a level playing field.

    This probably wouldn't have stopped microsoft from pulling the carpet out from under netscape, and the suckage of NS from that point forward, but I think that the web would be very different today.

    As for pdas, you have a separate page, or have the server have a way to render the page differently for different filenames. For example, if I request foo.html from the server it gives me foo.html, if I request foo.wml from the server it gives me the same page, but does the markup differently (just like CSS can do today) for that page (which is not a real page, more of a mod_perl type of thing, but not).

    As for upgrading to mozilla I have, but sites out there still tell me my browser isn't supported. The problem is more to do with web designers using the "opt in" rather than "opt out" mentality. "Allow only ie5 windows" instead of "Don't allow netscape 4.x".

  10. Re:*sigh* by Alan · · Score: 3

    Really? I see it every day, just the other way around:

    Generally in the format of something like:

    "Netscape 6/mozilla is not supported. Please go [here] to download the latest version of IE"

    Or from shockwave (if you go to their site on a non-windows, non-ie browser... the only way to view anything on it is to fake the user agent string to a windows/ie code in konq).

    "It appears that your operating system is not supported by shockwave.com. We support the following operating systems: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 (or later), and Mac OS 8.1 (or later)."

    I have to give kudoes to http://k10k.net/ because they had a "we don't support netscape 6 DCOM just yet, sucks to be you" type message up a while back, but they have apparently re-designed their site.

  11. Re:my apologies by Klaruz · · Score: 1

    It wasn't meant as a response to your troll, it was supposed to be an attempt at humor.

    You know... sending back data about privacy... ha ha... Apparently nobody got it though, oh well.

  12. Re:Netscape plugin by Klaruz · · Score: 2

    For those browsers without the plugin, a simple checkbox in the "preferences" tab could be added to send back demographic info on the number of users interested in P3P support for their browser.

    Why is it that a checkbox in the prefs, that sends back demographics about wanting privacy support, seem a bit odd to me?

  13. Re:Which Browser Performs Better At Standards Test by pod · · Score: 1
    Dude, both your links show Mozilla matching the referance image almost pixel for pixel (the second one has non-aliased fonts, and both radio buttons are checked in the first one). IE, on the other hand, is nowhere close to matching the reference image. Why don't you check your links and claims before you post them? Also, moderators, you're on crack.

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    "Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
  14. More at The Register by alanw · · Score: 3

    The Register's opinion (note that they have DoubleCLick ads on their pages can be read in these two articles:
    WinXP IE6 spells death for Doubleclick - and a boost for MSN? and
    IE6 will not monster our cookies, says Doubleclick

  15. All I want ina browser... by singularity · · Score: 5

    I want the ability to filter cookies based on the domain they came from. /. cookies - Yes. Doubleclick - No.

    I want the ability to filter images based on the domain and/or size (no more 1x1 web bugs).

    I want the ability to filter JavaScript based on the domain.

    I want the ability to set up my browser so that sites cannot open new browser windows.

    Most of all, I want these features built into the borwser. I should not have to download a third party application to control fundamental parts of my web browsing activities.

    I normally use iCab on the Mac http://wwwicab.de/but for the past few weeks have had to use IE 5.0/Windows. iCab normally offers all of these filters (and more), and I find the features sorely lacking in IE.

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    - (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
  16. Look at the lizard. by Thorgal · · Score: 1

    Visit http://komodo.mozilla.org/planning/branches.cgi and scroll to item 29.
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    "Man in the Moon and other weird things" - wfmh.org.pl/thorgal/Moon/
  17. Re:"bad news" for doubleclick? nope by RelliK · · Score: 1
    Any group of companies could just share apache logs and do some simple Perl analysis to correlate a huge number of visitors. Some factors like NAT and PPP reduce the effectiveness, but the majority of useful data can still be data-mined. Cookies are just the lazy way of doing the same thing, as well as providing stateful visits to the sites themselves.

    These things don't "reduce effectiveness" as you say. They make sharing Apache logs absolutely useless. 99.9% of all residential internet connections have dynamic IP addresses. Some of these are semi-static and change once a month or so (like Cable and DSL via DHCP) some change once a day or so (DSL via PPPoE), but the vast majority change all the time (dialup PPP). Therefore, you cannot track someone by just correlating the IP addresses in different web server logs.
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  18. javascript filter by arielb · · Score: 1

    this is for the javascript filter wishlist bug in mozilla: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=75371

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    1. Re:javascript filter by arielb · · Score: 1

      cool I have a 1 now. Thanks

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    2. Re:javascript filter by SquadBoy · · Score: 1

      I don't know why your post is at 0 but thanks very much. I'm going to repeat it here so more people will see it thanks.
      this is for the javascript filter wishlist bug in mozilla: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=75371
      posted by arielb

      --

      Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
  19. Re:Great... some real innovation! by arielb · · Score: 1

    mozilla is working on P3P http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=62399, image permissions, disabling popups...all sorts of things

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  20. Re:Which Browser Performs Better At Standards Test by khuber · · Score: 1

    Why would Mac IE5 be more standards compliant?

    It must be a completely different code base
    (???)

    -Kevin

  21. Ban IEv6? You elitist prick. by Ross+C.+Brackett · · Score: 3

    You see, you don't like Microsoft because they tweak with standards.

    However, I am not you. I like some of the stuff Microsoft has done with IE. Microsoft has done some selective implementation of CSS2, for instance, that I find commendable, even. Not buckling as Mozilla did to the W3C's demand that CSS2 compliance means allowing for the page to screw with the widgets appearance (besides color,) for one.

    You see? I have a different opinion about browsers. It's informed, but it's different than yours. The problem is, everyone has different opinions. One group isn't in the right, the other in the wrong. Republicans aren't more right than Democrats, they're just more different.

    Just like everyone wants everone else's browser to do different things. It's not because you're right and they're wrong. You just have different opinions. If everyone starts banning everyone elses' browser in order to try to force change, the WWW will become an unbrowsable mess. And that would suck.

    So, present your ideas in a public forum. Convert all your friends to your browser of choice. Just don't ruin the web for everyone else. That's just being a jerk.

  22. Re:Here we go again. by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2

    Heh. That's great.

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    The enemies of Democracy are
  23. Re:*sigh* by Rumble · · Score: 1

    Nothing like a poorly timed 5 year old joke to lighten the mood, eh?

  24. Re:-turbo eats 15MB of ram by Doctor+Memory · · Score: 1

    They're still statically linking the Motif libraries, then?

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    Just junk food for thought...
  25. Ask yourself 2 questions by gelfling · · Score: 2

    How does this fuck with AOL?

    How does this benefit MS directly?

    Probably the only way to turn it on is to also enable Smart Tags. At least that's my theory.

  26. Use "adsubtract" by HEbGb · · Score: 1

    www.adsubtract.com .

    It does all of this, and blocks banner ads (if you want). It works great.

    Obviously it would be nice to include in a browser, but it is available, might as well use it.

  27. Slashdot moderators suck by markb · · Score: 2

    Please, this post is at most slightly funny. Certainly not funny enough for a score of 5!

    1. Re:Slashdot moderators suck by csbruce · · Score: 2

      I'll give up one of my "Funny"s if you give up one of yours.

  28. Re:Which Browser Performs Better At Standards Test by pen · · Score: 1
    I'm using Opera 5.11 under W2K. It renders both tests perfectly.

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  29. Re:*sigh* by FFFish · · Score: 2

    Basic browser stuff that [Opera] does better. Opera also has better cookie management.

    Microsoft is the first to implement *A* version of P3P. It is not implementing *THE* version of P3P. It's bastardizing it, because that's how Microsoft operates: embrace, extend, extinguish.

    The best thing you can do for the web is to BLOCK MSIE v6 for the time being. Send a message to Microsoft that you want them to quit screwing with standards.

    There've been net-wide rallies behind common causes before (blue ribbon campaign, f'rinstance). It's time for another one.

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    Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
  30. Re:First Party Cookies by Quinthar · · Score: 1

    Everyone here seems rather informed regarding the whole issue, so I'll pose a question here I'm struggling to get answered:

    What's the "best" way to have websites across different domains (www.aaaa.com, www.bbbb.com) perform a single logon? Ideally I'd be able to enter a userID into either site, and the back end systems would do the account data sharing (but that's not the part the concerns me). What I'm curious about is how, after entering my name into one of the sites, I can go directly to the other site and have it automatically recognize me without having to re-login.

    The ideal solution would be to use some sort of "global" cookie that has an encrypted userID in it, such that the constellation of cooperative websites would have a shared key to decrypt it. With this sort of global cookie, the user could log on once to any website and be able to automatically authenticate to the others. However, as best as I can tell, this sort of global cookie feature does not exist. It may be possible to write a cookie specifically intended for a single other website, but that doesn't really scale well (and it assumes that every website knows the identities of every other website that is participating in the single logon).

    How would you approach and solve this problem? Thanks!

  31. Some MSIE anagrams by ch-chuck · · Score: 3

    Been real boring day so I've come up with these ways to rearrange the letters in "Microsoft Internet Explorer" to spell:

    it's for experimenter control
    extort, enforce, imprint loser
    extreme profits control rein
    cern extortion reptile forms
    export control terrifies men
    cool printer, extreme font sir

    Your welcome.

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    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  32. Re:How Does Site Inform Browser of Compliance? by Dg93 · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, even though the P3P standard say its optional, IE6 requires the CP part. For better or worse :)

    --Dg

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    --Dg
  33. Am I really reading another browser war? by jonbrewer · · Score: 3


    What was I thinking?

    Have I learned nothing in my years of Slashdotting?

    At least I managed to close the two windows with which I was about to start raging fires.

    I should know enough by now not to even look.

    sigh.

  34. Re:*sigh* by Zico · · Score: 1

    But that falls apart because Netscape does such a poor job implementing the standards that almost all the other browsers support. Your solution is to cripple everybody else just because a browser company with less than a 10% market share can't code their way out of a wet paper bag. If everyone using Netscape 4.7x and below would just upgrade to Netscape6/Mozilla, the web would be a much better place for everybody.

    Your solution also would also be poor for sending specific content to non-typical-but-growing-more-common devices like PDAs.


    Cheers,

  35. Re:*sigh* by Zico · · Score: 1

    Yeah, well I disagree back! The problem is that level playing field you mentioned is too low. If you keep the level playing field, why would Netscape even have bothered with the whole Mozilla trek? They could've kept building on the same lousy compliance of Netscape 4.x and have never been given any incentive to improve, since web devs couldn't have coded for the more complex capabilities of the W3 standards that the other guys do support.

    As for PDAs, I think WAP's in a bit of trouble right now, so I'm just talking about devices which view regular old HTML.

    I'd say give some of those designers you mentioned more time, and maybe a polite email (and by polite, I don't mean polite while being a sardonic/condescending ass); they're still scarred by having to deal with Netscape 4.x. I do think the Mozilla guys could do a great service to their users, though, by not being so stubborn with the document.all thing.


    Cheers,

  36. Re:Which Browser Performs Better At Standards Test by Quikah · · Score: 1

    On my system here (Win98 SE w/ IE 5.5sp1 and Mozilla 6/13-04 build) IE missizes most of the boxes on the first page. Mozilla renders everything exactly, except the radios are both ticked.

    Don't even go to the second one with IE, completely broken. I would believe the Mac IE5 works since it is MUCH MORE standard complient than Windows IE. My Mozilla is perfect on the second.

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    Q.
  37. Re:All I want ina browser... by kinkie · · Score: 2

    You would love some of the scriptlets mentioned in this article over at Roxen Community.
    They work fine at least with Netscape 4.X.

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    /kinkie
  38. Re:All I want ina browser... by ivan256 · · Score: 2

    I want the ability to set up my browser so that sites cannot open new browser windows.

    That's not good enough. It removes too much functionality. What you really need is something like sites can only open a new window in response to a click, and it can only be one new window. Also, the window.close() functionality should be disablable. I don't want anything to happen when I close the window except for the window to close. Nothing ever .

    BTW, Konqueror does all the things you asked for except the image filtering by size. You don't seem to run a *nix variant though, so it won't help you for now. You should consider debian on your Mac.

    Which way to the topic again?

  39. Why do't you stop using cookies then? by ivan256 · · Score: 3

    we will still get blocked from our cookies, because the default setting doesn't allow 3rd party cookies

    we don't do anything "bad" with the cookies we collect

    Why don't you just stop using cookies then? Really, what nessicary functionality can't you implement on the server side for advertising that you need to use cookies for? You should be able to do all of the standard things. (Keep statistics, don't show people the same ad over and over. Track consumer preferences for targeted ads... The works.) Not only that, but when you store data in a cookie, your data is at the user's mercy. the cookie file can get cleared at any given time. If it's on your server, you have control over it.

    If you're clever, you can even keep track of the data on the server when the user's dynamic IP address changes by keeping other information like the user agent string and what "block" of dynamic IPs the address is assigned from. If the user views more then one page from a particular site, you can seed the links with more information collected through javascript that will get sent to you when the user follows a link. Make a little (1x1) flash program that sends you some data. Really all of this cookie nonsense is just that. Nonsense. You can be so much more evil without cookies because the user can't tell you're doing it once they've left the page.

  40. iCab by Pope · · Score: 2

    iCab is even better. It shows the cookie, and gives options to:
    a) accept it, expire on quit
    b) accept it, and any subsequents from the domain
    c) accept it, but not allow it to be used
    d) refuse it
    e) refuse it, and refuse subsequent cookies from the same domain.

    It also allows you to change your preferences to either "never ask again" or "always ask" with each alert box.
    It doesn't take much surfing to block a LOT of domains this way. I love it, and wish more browsers would implement their cookie management in the same way. It's the best one I've used.

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    It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
  41. Re:All I want ina browser... by Mario+B · · Score: 1

    www.safeweb.com can probably fulfill some of your needs and doesn't require you to install anything.

    Mario.

  42. Re:Which Browser Performs Better At Standards Test by MindStalker · · Score: 3

    Umm, viewed both in Netscape 6.1PR1 (same as mozilla 0.9.1, not the same as Netscape 6.01) both look perfect to me, execpt the radio buttons are checked, and according to the source, only the first button should be checked, while the reference rendering both are unchecked. But anyways, I'll have to put a bug report out :) thanks

  43. Re:All I want ina browser... by Stephen+Williams · · Score: 1
    p> I want the ability to filter cookies based on the domain they came from. /. cookies - Yes. Doubleclick - No.
    I want the ability to filter JavaScript based on the domain.

    The first browser I saw with those two features was IBrowse 2.x on the Amiga (which I'm using at this very moment, by the way).

    (Score: -googolplex, Amiga Fan)

    And regarding filtering popup windows: Galeon (and maybe Mozilla too) has a "disable popups" thingy that nixes popup ads in one easy move. To prevent other windows opening (like when you click on a normal HTML link), just drag the link into the same window, if you see what I mean. I'm pretty much in the habit of dragging links instead of clicking on them all the time now. (Lucky for me, that works on both IBrowse and Galeon, so I don't have to remember two different behaviours depending on which box I'm sitting in front of).

    -Stephen

  44. Re:Have client say what it wants, not what it is by kubrick · · Score: 1

    A better solution is to have the client send what types of data it prefers, perhaps a "Content-class: simple" as an example. You should send what a client says it wants, not keep a list of clients and what to send them (which leaves you stuck if a new client comes out until you update the database).

    You'd probably want to have clients send a list of what they handle in preferential order, e.g. "Content-class: HTML4, HTML1, WAP, plain-text', and that way web servers could be set up to serve content at specific different levels -- something doing minimal data might only send out WAP and plain text, while all-singing all-dancing sites would have 'XML+CSS2+Shockwave' only :)

    That way lies Web balkanization, but aren't we headed there anyway? Either that or an enforced socialism (i.e. you use IE6 or you don't exist). I know which one I'd prefer.

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    deus does not exist but if he does
  45. Re:-turbo eats 15MB of ram by kubrick · · Score: 1

    I'd hope Mozilla loads faster since it's eating an extra 15MB of ram without a browser window even open.

    How much memory do the parts of IE that Windows loads when it starts up use? (i.e. the browser as a workplace shell idea) -turbo just gives parity on that scale, maybe with a slightly higher cost in memory usage.

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    deus does not exist but if he does
  46. eh? by sporty · · Score: 2

    a security hole filled browser implementing privacy enhancements to protect user sercurity. Am i the only one seeing some irony in this? :)

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  47. Re:*sigh* by NetGuruFL · · Score: 1

    You have a *Flash* plugin, but not a *Shockwave* plugin, which is what Shockwave.com requires (go figure!).

  48. Re:Will Mozilla support P3P? by Centove · · Score: 2

    If you poke around in the mozilla source tree you _will_ see some p3p stuff contributed by, of all people, IBM...

    So yes its in the works.

  49. First Party Cookies by The+Raven · · Score: 5

    Anytime you have multiple websites owned by the same company, then you immediately have a condition where that information is assumed to be shared between sites. This is a backend issue unrelated to how browsers or privacy policies work.

    I'm mildly amused that the poster seems to regard this as some kind of 'sneaky trick' by microsoft. As if it is 'wrong' to maintain a single login location, as if you 'should' create a separate login for every single website. I've been working on database driven websites for nearly 5 years now, and I can't recall a single technical reason why I'd want to make multiple points of entry to the same database. The only reasons that are valid are design issues... specifically, did we want to have the customer see that login page A is actually affiliated with website B. Microsoft, being such a public brand, has no need to hide the association.

    The way I look at it, by having a single login location Microsoft is actually being open and honest. They COULD have multiple points of entry into the login database, one for each site, and thus hide the fact that they are pooling user information between domain names. With a single point of entry, they are revealing their practice of data sharing... something that would be obvious to anyone with technical understanding of database driven sites.

    People get all up in arms about privacy with cookies, logins, and user information pages... completely forgetting that sites owned by the same company don't have to use ANY of that to create a profile of your activity on their multiple sites. People seem to have this idea that differing domain names create a magical 'wall' between sites, preventing anything from leaking from one domain to another. Anything they see as breaking that wall is somehow evil.

    In all practicality, if Microsoft really wanted to, they could make all their sites as subdomains of microsoft.com... msn.microsoft.com, passport.microsoft.com, msnbc.microsoft.com, etc. Then, the actuality of data sharing would be more concrete for the less technically inclined.

    Raven


    And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

    --
    "I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
    1. Re:First Party Cookies by cowboy+junkie · · Score: 1

      Actually it was Michael who posted the story, not Timothy...

    2. Re:First Party Cookies by elliotw · · Score: 1

      The Passport architecture supports exactly this kind of scenario. Read about how they do it here. You could either have your sites use Passport Single Sign-In, or try to implement something similar yourself.

    3. Re:First Party Cookies by Ayende+Rahien · · Score: 2

      No, there isn't such a thing as *global* cookie.
      That is done for security reasons.
      I can't think of a good way to do it that isn't exploitable.

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      Two witches watch two watches.

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      Two witches watched two watches.
      Which witch watched which watch?
    4. Re:First Party Cookies by damiam · · Score: 1
      I'm not a web developer, so I might be wrong, but:

      When you login to site A, it shows you a page with web bugs on it from sites B, C, etc. You now have session cookies logging you into all of the sites.

      just a thought

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      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  50. Re:riiiight by rking · · Score: 1

    It is unlikely that I will be able to take some open source to a programmer and pay him or her to modify it to fit my wants.

    Why do you find that unlikely? I guess the cost might not be to your liking but that's the only obstacle I can think of and that's true of car modifications too. What was it you wanted to have done?

  51. Re:All I want ina browser... by rking · · Score: 2

    If the user of a web browser wants the ability to block 1x1 transparent images then the idiocy of your paymasters is not a reason for them to be unable to do so.

    That's the point, the first person wanted to be able to block these images, the second complained that then as a web page writer they wouldn't be able to force the layout that they wanted. Whining about the dificulties of writing commercial pages is simply irrelevant to someone looking for the features they want in their browser.

  52. IE is cheating by Osvaldo+Doederlein · · Score: 1

    It is true that iexplore.exe processes are one without any open browser windows. But lots of MSIE support DLLs are always loaded by explorer.exe; look at its DLLs with NTHandleEx or other process inspector and you have some surprises...

  53. Re:All I want ina browser... by ajs · · Score: 2

    Under Windows, you probably want Netscape 6.1 (*not* 6.01, which is *way* too unstable).

    You will find NS6.1 to be very privacy friendly (though two of your features are missing: JavaScript per domain and images by size).

    It's based on the Mozilla 0.9.1 release which is very nice, and usable on it's own, but adds a number of plug-ins that are worth having.

    --
    Aaron Sherman (ajs@ajs.com)

  54. konqueror? by harlan · · Score: 1

    Doesn't konquerer do most of the things you're asking for here? Browse around the preferences and you'll notice it does most of that stuff.

    - You can filter cookies by domain.
    - You can enable javascript, yet disable the window.new() javascript function to stop popups.

    etc etc

  55. Re:*sigh* by csbruce · · Score: 2

    One of the biggest mistakes made in designing the Web is probably allowing clients and servers to identify their brands and versions. Then web-site designers would have the fewest headaches only if their pages were actually interoperable.

  56. Re:How Does Site Inform Browser of Compliance? by csbruce · · Score: 4

    The server must respond with:

    Server: Microsoft-IIS

    (or maybe that's IE6.1...)

  57. Re:Completely baseless statistics by Malcontent · · Score: 2

    He is just using the same tactics Microsoft uses to discredit the competition. Actually he is not calling them communists or anti american so he is actually not as bad. Also he is not bribing politicians and taking out advertising in major markets either so I guess he is just a pale shadow of what microsoft is. You can't fault the guy for trying though.

    --

    War is necrophilia.

  58. Re:*sigh* by ncc74656 · · Score: 2
    Now, if we could just convince them to implement the W3C HTML Standard or the W3C CSS Standard.

    Hmm...what part of the standard does IE not implement? I printed out the HTML 4.01 and CSS 2 specs and kept them next to me as I redid this site. IE (back to at least 4.01) renders it properly, as do Mozilla (last I checked was M16), Opera, and Lynx. The browser that choked was Nutscrape 4, so if you want to complain about a browser not meeting standards, I'd suggest that you go after AOHell and not Microsoft. I checked the site with W3C's validators, and everything came up OK.

    --
    20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  59. Slashdot didn't like P3P the first time around by Hard_Code · · Score: 5

    Slashdot didn't give P3P such a warm reception the first time around.

    --

    It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
  60. OmniWeb rules! by jcr · · Score: 2

    In OmniWeb (Mac OS X only, sorry guys) you can:

    1) give a list of regex's to filter. (Mine are .*banners*, .*\.doubleclick\.net, etc.)

    2) set your cookie policy per site (I take slashdot's cookie. All others, I accept and discard when shutting down the browser.)

    I haven't used iCab, but I'm told it gives you similar options.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    1. Re:OmniWeb rules! by mindriot · · Score: 2

      > (I take slashdot's cookie. All others, I accept
      > and discard when shutting down the browser.)

      That's exactly what I want to see in a browser. Many shopping sites need cookies to keep track of the shopping cart, which is fine with me. And I don't want to keep turning cookies on and off or manually accepting/rejecting them just to be able to use a shopping cart. My current solution is starting netscape/mozilla via a script that deletes all stored cookies except the ones I want to keep (/. etc). That way, cookie-dependent web apps will work, but cookies will disappear the next browsing session.

  61. Webwasher by sometwo · · Score: 1

    I use webwasher. It works fairly well and is free for personal use.

  62. Re:Atrocious by Tackhead · · Score: 2
    > All they are doing is passing people through msn.com first before sending them to any other MS web site. If I had a big organization with 20 different sites, I would do the same thing. It makes sense - you track total usage of your web properties in one place.

    ...and if M$ had hired Doubleclick to pass everyone through doubleclick.net first, before sending them to any other MS-owned website, it'd also somehow be a Good Thing?!

    What I wanna know: Is there an msid.msn.com cookie set on boot/install these days?

    Next time you install W98, boot to raw DOS. Poke around the filesystem with a hex editor and examine the cookies. You'll find one set for whatever username and workgroup you entered at install time, pointing to our old friend http://msid.msn.com.

    Under W98/IE4, deleting these files, rebooting, and re-entering Windows, the cookie data was restored automatically, even though this box had never been connected to any network.

    Disclaimer: I wasn't able to reproduce this today on a W98SE/IE5 box. I know I did it under 98, because I ranted about it on Slashdot last year when the GUID-leak stories came out.

    Can anyone confirm/deny this type of behavior on XP?

    They've been doing this shit for a long time.

    A DejaGoogle search revealed tracking through msid.msn.com as far back as 1997.

    I think my "cookie kept coming back" had something to do with RegWiz, which created such a cookie before you even registered? (And in my case, even though I hadn't registered :)

    So today they generate and use an MSID instead of the HWID. It's still all about tracking.

    Speaking for myself, I firewalled msid.msn.com a few years ago and never missed it.

  63. The really sad thing is... by Velox_SwiftFox · · Score: 2
    I fear that with all the - admittedly necessary - concentration on privacy about information that really does matter, credit card numbers, and other personal info, the kneejerk reaction against virtually any information being provided from the client end other than a URL - and probably some think a server knowing what IP asked for that is too much -is going to utterly cripple and prohibit what otherwise could be great advances in internet functionality. Near panic results from gathering information that reveals only things much less important than which URL was used by what IP - yes, this includes what Doubleclick gathers, all of it as far as I can tell. Just witness complaints about such basic functionality as being able to display image content from another site, and attempts to disable it - Duh! This is what the WWW was invented to do!

    A server has to collect "doubleclick-like" information if it is to, for example, learn how it can sort out which, of a gazillion possible pages that "sort of match" a nonexpert user's request, are really the important ones for that user. Or other users that could use the automatic rating info, donating theirs in return.

    I can just imagine the FUD that would be spread if a WWW client sent info back to a server like "Mouse was moved over and things selected on this page such and such an amount, page was in focus X seconds, the screen is at so big a size and Y percent full" et cetra, to help a user get what they are looking for. Again even though this reveals less than what the URL does in the first place - and yet would be invaluable to sift the gems of content from the mass of data out on the internet.

    It just can't all be done effectively on the client, or without aggregating the metadata about internet use by many users - the FUD speculation about what mysterious info can somehow be inferred by DoubleClick, and others, goes beyond the stupidity of saying a heart attack victim shouldn't be driven to the hospital because of the danger of an auto accident on the way - to something closer to using as an excuse the fear that the cellphone in a momentarily passing car might risk giving the dying victim brain cancer many yearslater.

    On a little different note - why, now, can't you simply select not just one of Microsoft's new "smart tags", but any word or content on a page and with a mouse button selection be able to say "search for stuff like this"? Is it just because it would cause asinine complaints from web page authors (fearing their own page's relative uselessness) that this this violated their copyright by letting someone use the page for what the author rather than the user wanted it used for (and who wanted to pretend this is different than letting someone copy those words and manually enter them into a search engine)?

  64. sorry charlie... by joq · · Score: 2


    I'd have to disagree with you. Whether or not I used IE I know enough about privacy, and there are many tools one can use such as JunkBuster to maintain an efficient level of privacy via way of cookies. Some things you should take into consideration are, aside from technology, marketing companies do psychological research on all types of people in order to perform target marketing of products. You see it on television when you watch commercials, e.g. ever see any commercials for black hair care products when Sally Jess Raphael is on? No you're going to see it on BET or when Oprah is on.

    This is still a form of privacy violation in a way since someone seems to assume only a selective class of people would watch television. When you go the local stores in urban neighborhoods you can see it via ads as well in which you'd be surprised how many companies perform these tasks via polls, questionaires, etc.

    When it comes to the Internet you have to keep in mind no one can see you, and you have every option to decline such things as cookies, or install programs which can act as a bodyguard to protect some site from gaining information on you.

    Check out some of my privacy links should these things disturb you, but don't assume any technology can fully impose on someone without their consent whether they consent to it or not.

  65. Re:Which Browser Performs Better At Standards Test by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

    No, it doesn't. Opera does not support the CSS2 first-child attribute. If you examine the float menu in my tests, you'll see that it has a horizontal line at the top which the reference image does not (because that is the first-child of the menu, which I told it to not display via CSS).

    Maybe you need your glasses checked ;)
    --

    --
    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  66. What? by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

    My welcome?

    What welcome?
    --

    --
    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  67. Link to Criticism of P3P by __aasfhc1949 · · Score: 2
    Hello:

    Here is a /. link to the original article: http://slashdot.org/yro/00/06/22/1627224.shtml
    Here is a direct link to the EPIC criticism: http://www.epic.org/reports/prettypoorprivacy.html
    Rajiv Varma
  68. Re:All I want ina browser... by mduell · · Score: 2

    I know its kind of an odd thought, but you could buy the @Guard firewall, which does all of those.

    Mark Duell

  69. Re:Mozilla vs IE 5.x - a test by spectro · · Score: 1
    IE seems slightly more compatible with most sites

    Actually, most sites seems slightly more compatible with IE

    ---

    --
    HTML is obsolete. It's time for a new, simpler and richer markup language.
  70. Re:How Does Site Inform Browser of Compliance? by pnear · · Score: 2

    From the brief reading I've done, they want to see a link in the HTTP header that refers to the location of the privacy policy on the server. This policy needs to be encoded in XML to match a set of tags specified by the W3C spec.

    More technical information can be found here:
    http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles /q 283/1/85.asp
    http://www.w3.org/TR/P3P/

  71. Re:Microsoft Slashdot Site by DebtAngel · · Score: 1

    Oooh. Symantic attack. Cute. I really like the way you used the IP addy without the octets. Very clever.

    --

    Is this post not nifty? Sluggy Freelance. Worshi

  72. Re:IE6 wishlist... by avail · · Score: 1

    "Quite frankly I'm amazed that these advertising companies haven't been able to buy that functionality out of the IE6."

    I think that on this issue, MS would value the positive public perception of being pro privacy than the money doubleclick or others would pay. It's not like Doubleclick has a whole whack of cash to pay MS.

    --
    five fingers make a fist amalgamate and resist
  73. Re:All I want ina browser... by Moonshadow · · Score: 1

    I want the ability to filter images based on the domain and/or size (no more 1x1 web bugs).

    Bad idea, here's why. A lot of webmasters use 1x1 transparents for good uses. Myself, I use them to create sites that render the same in IE and Netscape. Blank table cells aren't rendered in Netscape 4.x-, and if a non-breaking space is going to expand the cell to larger than what I want, it's a problem. So I drop a 1x1 in there. Similarly, I use them as absolute width holders. Browsers are really very good at ignoring table and cell widths - so you drop a 1x1 in there stretched to the padding size I need.

    Also, if you do that, then the ad companies will come up with something else. Such as creating a layer 500x500 pixels, dropping their webbug in that, and setting the z-index to -1 so it doesn't show up or capture input.

    Too easy to get around, too much functionality lost.

    Now, disabling loading images <= a certain size across domains == good idea.

    Just make sure you don't make it even harder for us to get a page to render correctly in multiple browsers.

  74. "bad news" for doubleclick? nope by Speare · · Score: 4

    No, the bad news is for IE users who think this will block DoubleClick.

    The article states DoubleClick expects to be compliant with P3P before IE6 is released, which means IE6's defaults will allow DoubleClick cookies. Doncha think DoubleClick and Microsoft are gonna be talking about such business-model show-stoppers and finding ways to make each other happy? Users will still have to take individual opt-out actions to stop being tracked.

    Even so, cookies are not the only way that people can be tracked. Any group of companies could just share apache logs and do some simple Perl analysis to correlate a huge number of visitors. Some factors like NAT and PPP reduce the effectiveness, but the majority of useful data can still be data-mined. Cookies are just the lazy way of doing the same thing, as well as providing stateful visits to the sites themselves.

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
    1. Re:"bad news" for doubleclick? nope by dwm · · Score: 1


      Any "privacy" standard that won't block Doubleclick belongs in the mathom-house.
      </ObGeekLOTRRef>

    2. Re:"bad news" for doubleclick? nope by Ayende+Rahien · · Score: 2

      No, IE also has a third-party cookies diable feature.
      This mean that if I visit forbar.com and there is a DB ad there, the browser *wouldn't* transmit cookies to DB.


      --
      Two witches watch two watches.

      --

      --
      Two witches watched two watches.
      Which witch watched which watch?
  75. IE on Mac is good by kimihia · · Score: 1

    I haven't used it myself, but reports say that IE on the Mac is good - better than IE on Win.

    It's implementation of standards is superior. At the moment IE5/Win's CSS 'width' attribute implementation is peeing me off.

  76. Re:-turbo eats 15MB of ram by TummyX · · Score: 1

    It's different. The -turbo option basically just hides the window, and leaves the process still running. I can close all my IE windows (leaving no iexplorer.exe processes left) and IE will load much faster than mozilla. This is with "start in new process" turned on.

    -turbo IS NOT THE SAME process as what IE uses.

  77. Re:*sigh* by ChristTrekker · · Score: 1

    Does it do anything with meta-info (other than TITLE tooltips on A) yet? I don't use IE unless I have to, so I don't know. I follow just a few things in Bugzilla involving HTML/CSS compliance, so I know there are lots of issues involved. I doubt MS has gotten it perfect.


    I have zero tolerance for zero-tolerance policies.

  78. My Fortune as seen on Slashdot today... by BierGuzzl · · Score: 1

    "What people have been reduced to are mere 3-D representations of their own data." -- Arthur Miller

  79. Netscape plugin by BierGuzzl · · Score: 2

    It would be really trivial to implement this plugin for other browsers and web servers. I think that universal plugins is the wave of the fugure, if any company would ever pick it up and run with it. A taskbar icon with a flag indicating protected privacy would be handy even for non-internet users, when using word processors, databases and spreadsheets, to ensure that there are no keyloggers running, for instance. For those browsers without the plugin, a simple checkbox in the "preferences" tab could be added to send back demographic info on the number of users interested in P3P support for their browser.

  80. my apologies by BierGuzzl · · Score: 2

    It was meant as a troll

  81. Anything Mozilla doesn't support is planned by BierGuzzl · · Score: 3

    One day mozilla will even cook your breakfast for you.

  82. Microsoft Slashdot Site by zpengo · · Score: 1
    Actually, Microsoft *does* have a slashdot monitoring server:

    http://slashdot.microsoft.com:42@1075594134/search .pl?topic=microsoft

    --


    Got Rhinos?
  83. *sigh* by zpengo · · Score: 5
    Now, if we could just convince them to implement the W3C HTML Standard or the W3C CSS Standard.

    You know...basic browser stuff.

    --


    Got Rhinos?
    1. Re:*sigh* by batkiwi · · Score: 1

      Exactly which parts of the current reccomended standard (xhtml1.1) does IE6 not properly comply to?

      Or html 4.01 for that matter.

    2. Re:*sigh* by ichimunki · · Score: 1

      Hmmm. I've never thought to include a user agent check to tell a user they've gone to the dark side, and could they please see the light. Interesting idea.

      As I read this article it sounded like a perfect opportunity for MS to screw small business and amateur web designers out of being able to reach customers or interact with them meaningfully. Of course, I was only half paying attention since most of the time I was thinking, "why bother? IE6 won't run on Linux and I wouldn't use it over Konqueror even if it did."

      --
      I do not have a signature
    3. Re:*sigh* by tanpiover2 · · Score: 1
      Mhmm....

      Does anybody REALLY think they're going to implement P3P as it's defined by the W3C?

      --

      But masters, remember that I am an ass: though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass.
    4. Re:*sigh* by rfsayre · · Score: 1
      So now Shockwave.com doesn't like my fsck'ing operating system? WHY? Why should it care about my OS, if my browser is up to the task?

      Well, a lot of these plugins require communicating with the browser (which is in another process), for things like POST operations. If they had that functionality built-in, then /. would be complaining about the download time to get the plugin.

      Art At Home

    5. Re:*sigh* by rfsayre · · Score: 1

      Opera has plenty of problems. My favorite is the inability of Opera5/Windows to reset the SRC attribute of an iframe. I know of certain sites that make Opera 5 users refresh everything instead. that sucks.

      Art At Home

    6. Re:*sigh* by rfsayre · · Score: 1
      The shortcoming is for refreshing iframes via javascript, which could be based on events that have nothing to do mouse clicks. Why don't you check out their specs, where they admit this shortcoming, among others.

      HAVE A NICE DAY!

      Art At Home

    7. Re:*sigh* by RacerX69 · · Score: 1

      If you really have the time, run throught the CSS1 tests at W3C CSS Level 1 Test Suite. You can then see that IE does NOT in fact support the standards as well as Microsoft would claim they do. Mozilla performs nearly flawlessly on this test with under 5 rendering errors. IE 5.5, on the other hand, had more than 40 rendering errors.

    8. Re:*sigh* by Eryq · · Score: 1
      But:
      1. Not being able to install their plug-in is one thing. Not being allowed to visit their site is another.
      2. As I said, I have installed their plug-in. On Solaris.
      --
      I'm a bloodsucking fiend! Look at my outfit!
    9. Re:*sigh* by Eryq · · Score: 3

      It appears that your operating system is not supported by shockwave.com. We support the following operating systems: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 (or later), and Mac OS 8.1 (or later)."

      I just saw this, from Solaris (on which, BTW, I run Netscape 4 with a Shockwave plug-in that works just fine). My response: what kind of BS is this?

      So now Shockwave.com doesn't like my fsck'ing operating system? WHY? Why should it care about my OS, if my browser is up to the task?

      Next I suppose they'll shut me out for having a monitor that's too small, or one which doesn't display 16M colors, or that was manufactured by Sony.

      Finally, I suppose, I'll see something like this:

      Your IP address is on our list of Open Source Development sites. Shockwave does not display its content to individuals who support the FSF, the GPL, Linux, Global Warming Theory or Public Television. Go back to China, you un-American commie pinko freeloader.

      Sheesh.

      --
      I'm a bloodsucking fiend! Look at my outfit!
    10. Re:*sigh* by damiam · · Score: 1

      Shockwave.com requires a shockwave plugin. Since there is no such thing for Linux (only a flash plugin), Linux users can't view the site.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    11. Re:*sigh* by damiam · · Score: 1

      I find that hard to believe, is there is no shockwave plugin for any UNIX OS. Only flash, which is what you have.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    12. Re:*sigh* by damiam · · Score: 1
      Note that Microsoft had create a 98%-correct emulation of Netscape 3 before anybody would use their browser. Mozilla faces a similar task now.

      Except that Mozilla doesn't have the benefit of being included as the default browser with 95% of the desktop machines on the planet.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    13. Re:*sigh* by BombTechnician · · Score: 1

      We need more sites like Inner Swine. Designed to be viewable on almost any browser. All these reqs. on websites are foolish, and take the focus away from the information. And to one (like myself) who can only get a dial-up at home, its a waste of time. Its bullshit, plain and simple.
      Bomb Technician

      --

      If you see me running, try and keep up
      There's a good chance I don't know what the hell I'm talking about
    14. Re:*sigh* by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      This whole business about Opera being advanced from a standards point of view is mostly bogus load of dog excrement put forth by that browser's advocate.loser community. Try the Box Acid CSS link in Opera, if you don't thinks so - the test shows up fine, but rest of the page is hosed.

      If you want to be like the iCab guys and argue speed and features, that's fine. But don't argue standards with Opera.

      Now, if you are going to suggest banning a browser, why suggests MSIE 6 -- if you have any influence (not that you do) that effectively keeps your customers on IE 5.5 or below -- which is much less standards compliant.

      Now, if you suggested banning completely broken user agents such as Netscape 4.x, I'd be inclined to agree.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    15. Re:*sigh* by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 1

      In practice, nobody used the user agent header in the early days to discriminate against browsers --
      They just loaded up their pages with frames and tables and then added a "Looks best in Netscape" icon.

      Note that Microsoft had create a 98%-correct emulation of Netscape 3 before anybody would use their browser. Mozilla faces a similar task now.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    16. Re:*sigh* by weasel0 · · Score: 1

      IE6 has full HTML 4.0 support, but I'm not sure about the 4.01 fixes. Those are relatively new, though, so that's forgivable. As for CSS, IE6 has full CSS1 support, limited CSS2 support and no CSS3 support. Those last two are incredibly annoying. It's better than Netscape, though. IE6 is also very good at parsing XML documents (though there aren't too many people that take advantage of XML). The most annoying aspect of IE6 is not the lack of support for the latest technology, though. It's the various menubars and 'features' that are included for people who have their head up their ass/just heard computers existed within the last week. Every time you download a media file, IE6 asks you if you want to play it in IE. If you say no, it opens up the bar the takes up half your browser window anyway. If M$ didn't include all this pointless crap in IE, it could conceivably use less than 10MB of RAM. Right now, it's taking 15.6MB of mine.

    17. Re:*sigh* by whereiswaldo · · Score: 1

      1) Can you please post a list of "all the other browsers", and beside that put the approximate % usage on the net for each?
      2) Netscape 4.7 gets me into all sites that use SSL with no problem. Netscape 6 doesn't, or at least didn't when last I tried.
      3) The new user interface in Netscape 6 stinks, IMO. Not everyone will like it, so you can't expect everyone to switch versions. I'm waiting until I hear some major news from them before upgrading.
      I use Netscape almost exclusively now that I have a powerful enough CPU to render most pages at a decent rate, mostly for the fact that Internet Explorer has terrible cookie management and keeps that damn .dat file in the cookies directory which can't be deleted. Oh yeah, and their default options are geared for doubleclick.net's benefit, not the user's.

    18. Re:*sigh* by whereiswaldo · · Score: 1

      When IE5 came out, I stumbled across a page in the microsoft.com domain that didn't support it. Pretty hilarious, actually.

      It just goes to show how tightly sites do their browser check, when a new version of a browser isn't even supported. How many site designers really care about Netscape 6? Probably not the majority.

      What *should* have been done is that you could send the browser's capabilities through, such as "I support CSS-1", or "I support cookies", etc... as an array of features. Who cares who the manufacturer of the browser is! It's the implemented features that matter.

    19. Re:*sigh* by whereiswaldo · · Score: 1

      Dude, it's 5:30 in the morning here and I'm so overtired, I almost fell off my chair from laughing at your name calling. Friggen hilarious as I read it on my Hell Attitude.

  84. Re:All I want ina browser... by Zalgon+26+McGee · · Score: 3
    Nope, not a legit use. Remember, kiddies, HTML is not a page description language. It is meta tags identifying data. The fact that the more anal-retentive want to dictate precisely how things should look is irrelevant; my browser, my prefs dictate display, not your god-awful layout or bizarre colour scheme.

    If you want complete control over layout, don't use HTML - use TeX.

    --

    ---

    Book(n): Utensil used to pass time while waiting for the TV repairman

  85. Re:All I want ina browser... by ErpLand · · Score: 2

    Konqueror does 3 out of 4 of these features. You can choose to accept or reject cookies for none, some or all domains. Same goes for JavaScript and java too.

    There's no built in filter for images though. If you wanted that you would have to use an external proxy like Muffin.

    Don't suppose this helps much on Windows or MacOS however, unless they've got KDE running on those already.

  86. Unfortunatley for you... by Caspuh · · Score: 1

    You can't tell if an image is 1x1 until you download it.

    1. Re:Unfortunatley for you... by dustpuppy_de · · Score: 1

      You can't tell if an image is 1x1 until you download it.

      That was my first thought, too. I think, the only reason why the size is encoded in so many of the 1x1 GIFs is that "Web Designers" today don't know a single tag anymore and only jerk around with Dreamweaver and such stuff ;-)

  87. Re:Which Browser Performs Better At Standards Test by RoninM · · Score: 1
    Bleh, I didn't submit that in that form -- I previewed, edited it to fix the mental mistake (I typed

    instead of to end the link), then submitted and somehow that came out. Sucks to be me.
    --
    If a corporation is a personhood, is owning stock slavery?
  88. Which Browser Performs Better At Standards Tests ? by Carnage4Life · · Score: 4
    Now, if we could just convince them to implement the W3C HTML Standard or the W3C CSS Standard.

    As far as I know, Internet Explorer performs better at Standards Conformance tests such as
    1. Todd Fahrner's Box Acid Test

    2. Inoshiro's browser test with a screenshot from IE 5 on the Mac courtesy of The Answer is 42
    than most other browsers out there. Mozilla and Konquerer are up there as well but they aren't close especially with regards to the newer XML related standards.

    --
  89. Where is "Spawn new browser in seperate process" by gvonk · · Score: 1

    Maybe I'm just a l8mer, tard, newbie, etc... But I use IE and I can't find this option "Spawn new browser in seperate process"

    --


    El Karma: excelente(principalmente la suma de moderación hecha a los comentarios de los usuarios)
  90. Re:Where is "Spawn new browser in seperate process by gvonk · · Score: 1

    I am running IE 6.00.2462 and I don't see that option anywhere... Oh well, thanks for trying...

    --


    El Karma: excelente(principalmente la suma de moderación hecha a los comentarios de los usuarios)
  91. Microsoft to implement Slashcode by SpookComix · · Score: 4
    Redmond, WA
    In a startling press release from Redmond, Microsoft has announced that it's corporate web site will incorporate the use of Slashcode.

    However, the popular "geek" web site "Slashdot.com" was less than impressed.

    In an article authored by Slashdot editor "michael", he writes "Microsoft has no business running Slashcode. We, um, don't like Slashcode anymore." When questioned about this sudden change in position, "michael" responded "If those bastards run it, it must really suck." "michael" then forked the sign of the devil, and foamed at the mouth.

    Slashdot editor "Hemos", when asked for further comment, replied "Yawn".

    So, it seems that, although Microsoft may make grand steps toward securing their browser software and optimizing their web presence, Slashdot nerds will never, ever, be satisfied.

    --SC

    --
    You read fiction? I write it! Lemme know what you th
  92. Re:Mozilla vs IE 5.x - a test by STSeer · · Score: 1

    I call your bluff :)

    You didn't actually do all these measurements, did you?

  93. I'm so sick of this crap... by AnarchoFreak_00 · · Score: 1
    "If you want complete control over layout, don't use HTML - use TeX."

    No.. If you want contol over layout, use CSS. Thats what it was made for. Casscading style sheets. Using text to conrol layout is just as bad as using HTML to do it.

    "The fact that the more anal-retentive want to dictate precisely how things should look is irrelevant"

    It may come to a suprise to you. But some people like this. It adds a bit of life to the web, it makes it interesting. And there are also proper reasons to layout a page too. Somehow, you seem to think, that plane vanilla HTML has something against 1000 or so years of design history.

    Design isn't just there to make stuff look pretty, it's there to serve a perpose too.

    Maybe you should redirect you anger towards the web browser makers, and the web-designers that don't know how to design properly.

    I'm sick to death of this "I want the page to look how I want it, not how some designer thinks" bullshit, as a deffence to supporting CSS and other standards. The fact is. If these standards are supported. And designers use them properly. you can have the page exactly how you like it. But other people can also have the option to see it how the designer wanted to. Everybody wins.

    How many times dose this need to be said before the /. crowd understands this--what I though was a--simple concept.

  94. Re:Actually, you're 100% wrong - here's the truth by legLess · · Score: 2

    Check the link, dude. Also, I pretty clearly said that IE6 urinates copiously on Mozilla for cookie-handling. IE5 is not as good, but even so, I'm right now (with IE5) staring at an Explorer window showing me cookie name, domain, expiration date, modified date, and last accessed date in sortable columns. So :P

    question: is control controlled by its need to control?
    answer: yes

    --
    This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
  95. Actually, you're 100% wrong - here's the truth by legLess · · Score: 4

    Microsoft has an article, Privacy in Internet Explorer 6 that should answer your questions.

    Namely, even on the "High" security setting, IE6 will accept 3rd-party cookies that have an "acceptable" P3P policy ("acceptable" is defined). If you'd read that document, it looks like they're implementing this rather well. They've made intelligent exceptions (e.g. "Special Provision for Legacy Opt-Out Cookies"), and they're very clear about IE6's behavior.

    Now, I don't particularly like P3P, nor do I like feeling that M$ is shoving it down my throat. Is it the best possible solution? Perhaps not, but what else is there?

    An earlier linked article at EPIC complains about how difficult most users find changing their cookie preferences and how confusing privacy is. Their solution? A "tools" page with 62 bloody links on it, to proxies, cookie managers, filters, PGP, SSH, anonymizers - most Windows users would have a heart attack just trying to understand the acronyms. That's supposed to be easier?? This is precisely the problem Microsoft is trying to address.

    I hate to be an IE apologist, but IE6 kicks the shit out of Mozilla at cookie-handling. This is classic Microsoft strategy: move into a market space that has no standards and leverage their monopoly to say, "From now on, you're doing it our way." I don't like their monopoly powers, but no one else was even doing a half-assed job at this. What's the leading contender to P3P? There isn't one. You can install the something from EPIC's page (as far beyond the reach of most Windows users as recompiling a kernel), but I bet none of these have even 2% market penetration.

    The only reason Microsoft could adopt P3P and take over this privacy space so easily is that the rest of the 'net has done such a piss-poor job of it for the last 10 years.

    question: is control controlled by its need to control?
    answer: yes

    --
    This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
    1. Re:Actually, you're 100% wrong - here's the truth by room101 · · Score: 1

      Before you go acting like everyone is a moron, you should read the post carefully and then check the facts. I didn't say we couldn't set cookies, but we can't get the cookies. We can set cookies all damn day, but unless we are in a 1st party context, we will never see them.

      --
      room101 -- how much can you stand before they break you?
      (they always break you eventually)
    2. Re:Actually, you're 100% wrong - here's the truth by fabiang · · Score: 1
      >IE6 kicks the shit out of Mozilla at cookie-handling
      This is not my experience. Can IE show you all cookies on your hard drive separately, that you can remove one by one. Can it give you the host, the name, the expiration of each cookie separately? Oh no, IE can block third-party cookies! Well, Mozilla has a nice pref called "Enable cookies for the originating web site only" that does exactly this (and it's what I'm using). No really, I don't see how IE is superior wrt cookies.

      Fabian.

  96. Before you go nuts... by thesolo · · Score: 2

    ...on a Microsoft Monopoly Tangent, everyone needs to remember some things.
    As soon as someone mentions Microsoft implementing a standard, everyone cries out "M$ has never implemented standards! Thats why I use Netscape!"
    Yeah, well Netscape did the same thing to Mosaic. They made their own tags (BLINK!), and only their browser supported it. And yet somehow MS is the only bad guy here. MS is implementing a standard, and IE6 is getting a lot closer to the w3c's standards for HTML & CSS. Which is much more than can be said for Netscape, Mozilla, etc. (Hell, netscape doesn't support ANYTHING anymore!) You don't have to go apeshit on an anti-MS rant just because they are doing something right...

  97. Doubleclick and P3P by stox · · Score: 4

    Don't think Doubleclick is going to have much trouble, they helped write the P3P standard.

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  98. Re:use Webwasher by aozilla · · Score: 2

    No more banner ads for me !! (including slashdot)
    So, how do you think Slashdot, as a free site even for cowards as anonymous as you, earns the money to keep itself running?
    By selling VA Linux hardware. Banner ads are so 2001.

    --
    ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
  99. Re:All I want ina browser... by evilviper · · Score: 1
    Well, all the functionality can be realized through Opera, just not quite in the way you explained it. Right now I setup a list of half a dozen sites that can send me cookies, and the rest are discarded automatically. No more Mozilla pop-ups for every single site I visit. You can also customize popups, you can have them open in the same window, in the background, or not at all. Besides that, if you don't want any popups when you close a window, just disable javascript temporarily, or better yet, stop visiting so many pr0n sites.

    ---=-=-=-=-=-=---

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  100. riiiight by characterZer0 · · Score: 1

    mozilla does a lot of things i don't want it to. it may know how joe user likes his eggs, but it doesn't know that i like mine steamed, over easy, with cinnimon. and won't let me tell it.

    --
    Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
    1. Re:riiiight by characterZer0 · · Score: 1

      It is a wonderful thing that good programmers that want to customize software can get the source and do it at will. Unfortunately, that leaves those of us without the time, motivation, or ability to learn that particular langauge without software we like. A majority of computer users are not programmers. You may call us 14m3; but I have no regrets that I've decided to study mechanical instead of software engineering. But due to the difference in the fields, you will be able to take your car to a custom shop and have them modify it to suit your wants. It is unlikely that I will be able to take some open source to a programmer and pay him or her to modify it to fit my wants. The beauty of UNIX is that I can put the tools together fairly easily to create a software environment to my liking. Endeavors like Mozilla, however noble they may be, do not allow this.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
  101. Have client say what it wants, not what it is by Frank+T.+Lofaro+Jr. · · Score: 2
    Your solution also would also be poor for sending specific content to non-typical-but-growing-more-common devices like PDAs.

    A better solution is to have the client send what types of data it prefers, perhaps a "Content-class: simple" as an example. You should send what a client says it wants, not keep a list of clients and what to send them (which leaves you stuck if a new client comes out until you update the database).

    --
    Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
  102. Standards are GOOD, here's why by Frank+T.+Lofaro+Jr. · · Score: 2
    You see? I have a different opinion about browsers. It's informed, but it's different than yours. The problem is, everyone has different opinions. One group isn't in the right, the other in the wrong. Republicans aren't more right than Democrats, they're just more different.

    Not having standards hurts interoperability. What if you asked me for directions and I used my own proprietary version of English, in which North and South and left and right are switched? Wouldn't that cause confusion?

    --
    Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
    1. Re:Standards are GOOD, here's why by borgquite · · Score: 1

      Then people wouldn't ask you for directions is the answer. You are using a slightly extreme example because it's not that Microsoft reverses standards, it's just that they bend them or don't fully implement them.

      If the world really cared about standards, Microsoft would either be forced to comply to them, or everyone would use the Microsoft standards.

      --

      ' Ore stabit fortis a fine placet ore stat '

      --
      ' Ore stabit fortis a fine placet ore stat '
      - found on a park bench
  103. Re:Atrocious by Pinball+Wizard · · Score: 4
    so you're saying msn.com will do things that other web sites can't? That's silly.

    All they are doing is passing people through msn.com first before sending them to any other MS web site. If I had a big organization with 20 different sites, I would do the same thing. It makes sense - you track total usage of your web properties in one place.

    Besides, if you don't want cookies, just turn off cookies. If you want to be warned each and every time someone tries to set a cookie on your machine you can do that to and refuse each cookie individually.

    This is not that big of a deal. I personally welcome the added security features.

    --

    No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?

  104. What about Mozilla? by Lord_Sy · · Score: 1


    Mozilla already has cookie and image blocking features!!!

    http://www.mozilla.org/

    I don't care about MS... they got it hard if they want to convince me to stop using mozilla and install IE on my Windoze again.

    --
    --- "pero toda poesía es hostil al capitalismo"
  105. YOU GOT IT: MOZILLA!!!! by Lord_Sy · · Score: 1

    Yeah!

    - Domain based Cookie blocking.

    - Domain based Image blocking.

    - JavaScript blocking (not by domain, just able/disable on browser and/or mail/news client).

    - You can also disallow sites to open popup and extra windozes, also (i guess) you can block rezising of the window, etc.

    http://www.mozilla.org/

    --
    --- "pero toda poesía es hostil al capitalismo"
  106. Get a real job! by Lord_Sy · · Score: 1


    I use Mozilla, and I block cookies and images from almost all sites (except those where I am subscribed to something, or when I need to look at pictures, etc.)...

    I'm actually blocking the O|S|D|N banners... sorry.
    I don't like the ideea of leting people get rich by tracking the websites I view. And I'm not interested on looking at advertising. (sometimes I allow Mozilla to download some banners, because I have to admit that some thinkgeek banners are funny).

    Now... I'm sorry for you, because you'll have to get a new way of making money for nothing.

    Well, the same for microsoft, because windoze 98 was the last version (and product) of their company that I have installed on 2 of my 3 computers at home (the other runs Linux).
    Anyway... I never bought a license and I installed my stolen copy on several computers... but now I'm tired of using ilegal software...

    --
    --- "pero toda poesía es hostil al capitalismo"
  107. Re:All I want ina browser... by SquadBoy · · Score: 2

    "I want the ability to filter cookies based on the domain they came from. /. cookies - Yes. Doubleclick - No. "
    Mozilla can do this
    "I want the ability to filter images based on the domain and/or size (no more 1x1 web bugs)"
    Mozilla can filter based on domain or site.
    Mozilla makes it really easy to turn JavaScript off can not do it based on domain that would be a cool wishlist bug I think. And of course 90% of the time turning off Javascript will make popup adds etc go away. Mozilla on a Windows machine can give you much of what you want. In particular if you are like me and don't want the Javascript stuff on most of the time. With the -turbo switch it is every bit as fast as IE 5. Have fun.

    --

    Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
  108. Re:So why can't everybody do that? by itarget · · Score: 1

    Nothing.
    Try to act surprised. :)

    --

    "Where shall the word be found, where will the word resound? Not here, there is not enough silence." -T.S. Eliot
  109. You know why they call it P3P? by The+Gline · · Score: 1

    Because PPP is a) already used and b) vaguely obscene-sounding.

    (Oh, like P3P isn't also vaguely obscene-sounding?)

    --
    Honorary Member of Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers
  110. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  111. Earlier Reports by Alien54 · · Score: 3
    This was Reported earleir (12 june 2001 on the Register here under the title "WinXP IE6 spells death for Doubleclick - and a boost for MSN?"

    There was an interesting follow up the following day, see here, under the Title "IE6 will not monster our cookies, says Doubleclick"

    The gist of the second story:

    Doubleclick cookies may be entirely blocked by the current beta versions of IE6, but DoubleClick insists that this won't be the case by the time the finished version of IE6 ships, this August. The company has a machine readable P3P policy in preparation, and this will allow Doubleclick cookies to be accepted by IE6 at the default privacy settings.
    And there is this tidbit
    That's just a snapshot of the way Redmond is currently embracing independent Internet standards. By keeping ahead of the curve, putting them in place first, Microsoft can call the shots as regards how they're put in place.
    Lovely, simply lovely.

    To get off on arguing about Double click misses the main point entirely. MS is there first with the most money in the next generation of privacy control, via IE6.

    Time to play connect the dots.

    Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  112. Re:Reject this foreign technology! by cOdEgUru · · Score: 1

    Dude, The most invasion of privacy has happened in US. And you are worried about others ???

  113. Mozilla vs IE 5.x - a test by cbr372 · · Score: 2
    Mozilla is currently the most standards-compliant browser. In its 0.9.1 reincarnation, I have found it to be fast, reliable and easy to use. I tried the GNU/Linux and Win32 versions.

    My Win32 test included a end-to-end test against the hyped IE 5.X browsers.

    The test was performed on a standard 700Mhz Duron with 128MB of RAM running Windows 98SE.

    My conclusive results are as follows:

    Loading

    Mozilla 0.9.1 loaded 17% faster than IE 5.01 and 21% faster than IE 5.5 using the -turbo option (C:\mozilla\mozilla - turbo)

    IE 5.01 and 5.5 loaded 31% faster than Mozilla 0.9.1 when Mozilla was loaded without the -turbo option. This is not a good measure of true performance though - IE loads itself into memory. A better test would be to use Mozilla -turbo vs IE (see above).

    Sites

    90% of sites viewed with Mozilla loaded 100% correctly the first time they were loaded. 5% of the sites test with Mozilla loaded 80% or better when loaded for the first time with Mozilla. 96.2% of sites loaded 100% correctly when refreshed multiple times under Mozilla.

    96% of sites viewed with IE 5.5 loaded correctly the first time. 98% of the sites loaded correctly after multiple refreshes.

    89% of sites viewed with IE 5.01 loaded correctly the first time. 7% of sites tested did not load properly due to a 128-bit encryption SSL bug in IE 5.01

    Reliability

    IE 5.01 crashed the system a total of 2 times. 50% of the time, IE 5.01 took down the system with it, claiming something to the effect of: "Illegal operation: Iexplore.exe", followed promptly by: "There was an internal error in Explorer.exe". The Task manager and Start Bar dissappeared and the system froze.

    IE 5.5 crashed a total of 1 time, claiming: "Illegal operation: Iexplore.exe". The system stayed up and IE 5.5 was able to restart.

    Mozilla did not crash during this test.

    Conclusions

    IE seems slightly more compatible with most sites, but Mozilla seems faster and more stable at most tasks. Undoubtedly future versions of IE and Mozilla will improve and re-testing will be neccessary.

    --
    Cedric Balthazar Rotherwood
    Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform +
    System Admin. for Solaris
  114. Re:3rd party ad serving and IE6 by ichimunki · · Score: 2

    I don't know who sold you the line that most people don't care about 3rd party cookies. Except maybe the same person who told you "what they don't know can't hurt them".

    I, for one, consistently refuse third party cookies using either IE4.5 on Mac OS or Konqueror under Linux. But this is because I get a little message each time a cookie is sent and I have to choose. The public has only been web browsing seriously for about four years and is generally uneducated about the kinds of databases that are being built from the collected data. But as they become more aware, I think you'll find that no one will want to accept 3rd party cookies-- even those that pass whatever minimum standards MS implements here.

    --
    I do not have a signature
  115. IE6 is less buggy than 5.x by linzeal · · Score: 1
    I use IE 6 on my computer at work and have noticed that it is far more stable than 5.x.

    At home I use Konqureor and Mozilla one displays pages funny sometimes and the other is more prone to crashing.

    I actually wish IE was avialable for linux it may be the only product I'd ever use of theirs cross platform besides unreal tournament ;)

  116. Re:Atrocious by SuperBug · · Score: 1
    There are 3 things to take into consideration with this.
    1. Microsoft is realeasing WindowsXP and SmartTags
    2. Microsoft can't do anything that doesn't benefit them directly, only.
    3. Microsoft doesn't even adhere to the standard which they helped to create.(P3P)

    Remember these things, you'll find that MS has a track record for only helping themselves.
    -SuperBug
    --
    --SuperBug
  117. IE 6.0's P3P implementation is unenforceable by SuperBug · · Score: 3

    The IE 6.0 implementation of P3P, as stated by Microsoft here, is basically unenforceable and IE 6.0 relies on those who are implementing the P3P policies to be honest and forthcoming for what their real privacy policy is. Also, there are several ways around even needing to USE P3P.

    The simplest is for someone like DoubleClick or AdForce, or Mediaplex (here on slashdot), to just redirect the cookie data being sent back to their servers, to their clients' sites and have the first party site re-set the cookie so now it is simply first party, but is still globally available.

    Then by changing the code which performs cookie operations on the clients' sites, it will then be a first party cookie, and the first party will then generate the call for the banner ad, etc, but with data popluated by the first party instead of cookies set by the third party. Just a tip.
    - SuberBug

    --
    --SuperBug
  118. okay, in all fairness... by Sodakar · · Score: 1

    Okay, so I joked around a bit in my other post, but... it would be nice to be able to surf the web and know that the stores and informational sites I am visiting all participate in an established privacy policy.

    Right not, it seems like you're just walking on thin ice -- with the next questionable website ready to sell your information for cash. I can't say the FDAA is perfect, but I sure like the idea that I can buy vitamins without worrying about my identity being sold... so... in that sense, it's a (small) step in the right direction...

    ...and I suppose you could just argue that Microsoft's own sites are ... er.. "already compliant"... heh..

  119. Re:Which Browser Performs Better At Standards Test by Tyndareos · · Score: 2

    Have you actually looked at your second link? It has mozilla showing the reference image of what it should look like and most of IE's renderings seem to have problems. The first link doesn't really show IE outperforming Mozilla either. I'm not saying it doesn't, but your links don't seem to support your statement in particular.

    --
    Matthijs

  120. Re:Sucks to be you by jjsjeff · · Score: 1

    Since M$ deems OSS "a cancer" they won't make software for Linux.

    Have fun sitting in your cubicle using your Vaporware (tm).

    -Jeff

  121. Re:Sucks to be you by jjsjeff · · Score: 1

    Ok I must pardon myself. I thought you were talking about using a l4m3 win98 machine earlier.

    Can we kiss and make up now?

    -Jeff

  122. DoubleClick NO MORE! by Moridineas · · Score: 1

    For all the people whining about DoubleClick, a simple solution:

    file /etc/hosts
    0.0.0.0 ad.doubleclick.net

    Scott

  123. IE6 wishlist... by sdo1 · · Score: 2

    One feature I'd love to see on IE6 as far as privacy goes is the ability to easily import and export lists of sites from the "Restricted sites" list. I have all the usual suspects (doubleclick, avenuea, etc) at maximum restrictions meaning no cookies, no scripts, etc.

    Quite frankly I'm amazed that these advertising companies haven't been able to buy that functionality out of the IE6.

    -S

    --
    --- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
  124. It is not shockwaves fault, but the publics by RedLaggedTeut · · Score: 1
    Nobody should promote the use of a proprietary protocol, shockwave, flash or whatever as a building stone for the web. That is not anybody who doesn't own a share in these companies.

    Doing so is just stupid. People look at me like I am RMS or a green party member, but it is really just that: Supporting proprietary formats ("You need a flash enabled browser to view this site.") is stupid.

    --
    I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
  125. So why can't everybody do that? by digitect · · Score: 1
    ...they bounce people through msn.com to log in to any Microsoft property, so it's always a "first-party" cookie being sent/placed.

    I know next to nothing about this, but what's to stop somebody from using this same method to force you a cookie from evilwebmaster.com?

    --
    There is no need to use a SlashDot sig for SEO...
  126. Good, but people will still give up their privacy by jdev · · Score: 1
    This is definitely a step in the right direction, but we have a long way to go. Most people will likely ignore the privacy policies and accept them like we do shrinkwrap licenses.

    Also, it's questionable whether companies must abide by their policies or change them as they please. Would this help an individual when a dot-com goes bankrupt, then changes their policy to sell their data?

  127. Default will allow 3rd party cookies if... by jdev · · Score: 1
    Actually, the default setting will allow 3rd party cookies. Here's a quote from the CNET article:

    However, "third-party" cookies--most often set by marketers or ad networks to track consumer response to promotions--will be allowed through IE 6 default settings only if the third party allows consumers to opt out of data-collection practices. If the company doesn't give consumers an option, the cookie will be blocked.

    DoubleClick's Polonetsky noted the company does not collect personally identifiable information with its cookies and does offer consumers an opt out, so its cookies will be accepted under IE 6 default settings.

    I am not exactly sure what allowing "consumers to opt out of data-collection practices" really means, but if DoubleClick can actually be allowed on the default, it could not be too restrictive :)

    1. Re:Default will allow 3rd party cookies if... by room101 · · Score: 1

      Once again, I didn't say that we couldn't set cookies, we just can't get them back, unless we are in a 1st party context.

      I probably should have mentioned that in my post, but didn't think about it.

      --
      room101 -- how much can you stand before they break you?
      (they always break you eventually)
  128. Re:Well, now, that's a first! by hillct · · Score: 3

    Microsoft is only ever going to implement standards which it thinks are in it's best interest. You can bet M$ bCentral.com (remember www.linkexchange.com?) will have their P3P policy in place in a hurry if it isn't alredy there...

    To be honest though, the business advantage for Microsoft, of implementing this standard atthis point is still a bit sketchy in my mind...

    What do they hope to gain? User trust? Most users blindly trust them anyway, and those who don't (ie: /.ers, etc.) are unlikely to start trusting in the almighty Bill because of this move. What's the angle here?

    --CTH


    ---

    --

    --Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
  129. Re:All I want ina browser... by Marc+Boucher · · Score: 1
    I want the ability to filter images based on the domain and/or size (no more 1x1 web bugs).

    I use a proxy which implements filtering by url. Right now I'm surfing 98% ads/bugs/counters free.
    Here is a link to WWWOFFLE on Freshmeat, and to the program's homepage.

  130. Re:How Does Site Inform Browser of Compliance? by room101 · · Score: 2

    you see that flag because nobody has changed their site to support p3p yet.

    On your site, you put headers like this:

    P3P: {url to xml describing your p3p policy}, CP="xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx"

    The "CP" part is the compact version, but that is optional.

    HTH

    --
    room101 -- how much can you stand before they break you?
    (they always break you eventually)
  131. 3rd party ad serving and IE6 by room101 · · Score: 5

    Yep, this really sucks for third party ad serving companies (like mine). The shitty thing is, it doesn't matter if we implement p3p on our systems or not, we will still get blocked from our cookies, because the default setting doesn't allow 3rd party cookies. (and who in the world is going to relax that?) We (as a industry segment, not just individual companies) have complained to MS about this and their response has been pretty lame. It is really easy for them to redirect their people to their website, but that isn't feasable to everyone else.

    I know what some will say, that finially these advertisers are getting what they deserve, and I don't totally disagree, but keep in mind, that (I don't know about other comanines, well, yes I do, but that is totaly someone else) we don't do anything "bad" with the cookies we collect. We don't sell personally identifiable data, etc. We have one of (I don't know of a better one) the best privacy policies in the industry. If everyone just decided that they didn't want 3rd party cookies, that would be one thing, but they haven't, because most people don't mind, as it doesn't hurt anyone. We don't deserve for our business to get impacted this much because of some arbitrary decision made by those people.

    Oh, well, enough of this ranting.

    --
    room101 -- how much can you stand before they break you?
    (they always break you eventually)
  132. Re:Great... some real innovation! by hammock · · Score: 3

    There was some talk of this earlier in the Mozilla development. The founding father of Mozilla rejected it, since they steer development, and blocking ads is not in thier best interest.

    The founding father in this case is,

    Netscape Corporation

  133. Completely baseless statistics by spideyct · · Score: 1
    I cannot believe someone would mod these "benchmarks" as informative. Reading it just left me with more questions. WHICH sites were used for the test? mozilla.org? How do you determine whether the page loaded 100% correctly? What is an incorrect page load? And reporting the crash statistics just makes it sound like you've got a really messy computer. I can't remember the last time IE crashed, and I use it about 30 hours a week. I don't use Mozilla nearly as much, but it has crashed for me in the limited time I've used it (0.90), and it doesn't seem to handle java correctly on some pages (tv.earthcam.com). However, I will not state that Mozilla is unreliable because I don't have enough examples to back that up (plus I think its a good product).

    Posts like this are a very clear example of why companies have license restrictions on publishing benchmarks for their products.

  134. What about us? by jeff13 · · Score: 1


    Hey. Why doesn't Micro$oft make some software for us?
    ______
    jeff13

  135. good idea by kilgore_47 · · Score: 2

    I'm all for more user-privacy, but I don't see M$'s motive for doing this. How can it benefit them?!

    And, by a local cookie do they mean from the same domain as one up in the location bar? My website has several domains, and uses a cgi program that spits our a semi-random image and also sets a cookie. The cgi is always called from one of the domains, so if someone finds the site by typing in another of my domains and the cookie gets set, is that not a local cookie?

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    The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
    1. Re:good idea by Ayende+Rahien · · Score: 2

      Yes, and it will probably fsck up your CGI.
      But there are more illegitimate uses of 3rd-side cookies than there are legitimate uses.

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      Two witches watch two watches.

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      Two witches watched two watches.
      Which witch watched which watch?
  136. One world, one company, one network?? by Diederik · · Score: 1

    First the Gates of Hell conquered the desktop of almost every luser. Now they want to dominate the internet, with their MSN-network. In a few years everyone who wants to advertise on the net will have to pay M$hit for their "cookie setting technique" in IE8? Sites must use IIS for this 'advanced' technique. By that time /.-ters will use the term M$$$$...

  137. Worry about US corps, not foreigners by Vainglorious+Coward · · Score: 1

    I fully support the idea of a Privacy Bill of Rights and would agree that P3P could be a distraction from the real issues, but your comment

    "...the widespread adoption and implementation will make it impossible to constrain the access of foreign web sites to the personal information of U.S. citizens"

    is way off the mark. Most other countries (and all "first world" ones), have much more effective controls in place over privacy than the US (which has almost none). When did you last see a US website privacy policy that covered all the OECD principles (there are actually eight of them - have you ever seen a privacy policy address more than four?). Witness the (still ongoing) furore between the EU and the US over the safe harbour agreement. If there's an enemy here, it's not the foreigners but US corporations.

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  138. "most people don't mind, as it doesn't hurt anyone"

    Utter nonsense. Most people don't know what's happening to their personal information. Lack of complaints indicates ignorance, not agreement.

    And there's little point whining that your business is impacted by someone's "arbitrary decision". If an arbitray decision can put you out of business, then I would say that your business model wasn't very sound in the first place, was it?

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  139. Re:All I want ina browser... Most of it you CAN by RacerX69 · · Score: 1

    The only problem with IE's support of these issues is that it is all or nothing. If you want to have different settings for different domains, you must assign all sites to a particular category (Restricted, Trusted, Internet, etc.) and then all sites in that category have the same rule. There is no flexibility to selectively choose which domains apply which rules. For example, I can't set IE to block scripts for a site belonging to my Trusted category without blocking scripts for all my Trusted sites.

    One solution MS could probably do is to allow the user to add more categories of his/her own choosing, but seeing as how not many people actually take advantage of these categories anyway it is a rather weak solution.

  140. Re:SMoke and Mirrors by Ayende+Rahien · · Score: 2

    You can probably sue on false advertisiment, or something like that.

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    Two witches watch two watches.

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    Two witches watched two watches.
    Which witch watched which watch?
  141. Will Mozilla support P3P? by Eryq · · Score: 1

    ...and if it's planned, anyone know when?

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    I'm a bloodsucking fiend! Look at my outfit!
  142. Re:Well, now, that's a first! by thanq · · Score: 1
    M$ is implementing an industry standard in their browser

    Actually, believe it or not, MS has been implementing the industry standards as early as versions 3.x of IE.I would recommend that you look into what has been supported in the releases of IE over past few years.

    Microsoft Internet Explorer delivers support for all the latest HTML 3.2 features, plus support for features found in no other commercial browser, including: W3C's Cascading Style Sheets, (...) W3C's new Table spec, (...) new standard OBJECT tag (...)."

    If you want to actually SEE it for yourself, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie3/features-f .htm?/Windows/ie/ie3/htmlext.htm. It applies to version 3.x, and MS has not been going against the industry standards since then.

  143. Re:Well, now, that's a first! by thanq · · Score: 1

    A small correction... MS has been going according to standards, and you can observe that by following all the supported features in IE releases, such as HTML 4, XML, CSS's, and so on.

  144. Re:All I want ina browser... by dustpuppy_de · · Score: 1

    The fact that the more anal-retentive want to dictate precisely how things should look is irrelevant

    Well, it seems to me that you never had to work in this business. Good for you. But most of the guys doing HTML for money out there only have the choice of "abusing" it or becoming replaced by some other guy.
    And don't tell me to learn C++ or some other "real" stuff. As a student that can only work part-time, I find it *far* more relaxing to do HTML than real programming, which is harder because you always reach your deadline with some crap that won't satisfy yourself - but it's released with a version number and you can't change anything unless you deliver a patch to all customers.
    If I have to annoy people like you this way - well such is life...

  145. Re:use Webwasher by dustpuppy_de · · Score: 1

    No more banner ads for me !! (including slashdot)
    br> So, how do you think Slashdot, as a free site even for cowards as anonymous as you, earns the money to keep itself running?

    To be honest: I hate this attitude. "Everything on the Internet should be free, but I don't want't to see any advertising."
    My advice: If you really want to use some piece of shit like WebWasher, at least send a monthly cheque to any site you want to stay up.

    By the way: Your post is even off the topic of this already-off-topic thread. WebWasher has nothing to do with privacy but was originally developed only as a tool to avoid the relatively high prices for online-time in Germany. No one needs too much creativity to spy you out even if you have installed it.

  146. Re:All I want ina browser... by Reckless+Visionary · · Score: 2
    So, you want MS to integrate the features of a third party application into its own?

    just checking. . .

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    I think I'll stop here.
  147. Re:-turbo eats 15MB of ram by damiam · · Score: 1

    I think they use GTK under Linux.

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    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  148. Re:All I want ina browser... by damiam · · Score: 1

    so does junkbuster, and it's free

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    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  149. Reject this foreign technology! by sllort · · Score: 1

    From the p3p FAQ:

    30. Is P3P an American technology?
    While many of the member companies that worked on P3P are based in the U.S., the specification itself is meant to be international. The P3P vocabulary, for instance, was created with the input of many people both in and outside of the U.S. Nearly half of the members of the working group that worked on the vocabulary were invited experts and staff from international data commissioners' offices, many of which were from Europe. In addition, there has been considerable input from Japan.

    Some privacy advocates have argued that P3P distracts from efforts to develop privacy legislation in the U.S.

    This initiative is a stake in the heart of the initiative for a Privacy Bill of Rights in the United States. Despite the light coverage of this topic in the FAQ, the widespread adoption and implementation will make it impossible to constrain the access of foreign web sites to the personal information of U.S. citizens. The technological barrier to a citizen's privacy will be in place long before we succeed in guaraunteeing the privassy rights of all Americans.

    Don't let Microsoft doom our future. Fight for privacy. Don't use IE6.

  150. How Does Site Inform Browser of Compliance? by idonotexist · · Score: 2

    While testing IE6, I noticed a 'flag' on the status bar which indicates privacy compliance or privacy non-compliance. I found every site a visited displayed a red flag. How does a site indicate to IE6 browser that it does, indeed, have a privacy policy? For instance, is a certain name required in home directory (like a site icon)?

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    "There ought to be limits to freedom"
  151. Following standards?! by jeffy124 · · Score: 1
    What's this!? M$ decides to follow a standard set by w3c!

    I wonder if when Netscape implements P3P, MS strays away from the standard, websites adjust their policies because IE is used most, Netscape now imcompatible with the websites.

    Additional story at ZDNet

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    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
  152. Re:All I want ina browser... by jeffy124 · · Score: 2
    If you have a Mac OS X, there's a browser known as OmniWeb that can satisfy you. It can site-by-site cookies, blocking of ads, blocking of new windows being spawned unless it's from a link, and other cool stuff.

    Beleive it or not, IE 5 beta for OS X can also handle some cookie filtering on a site-by-site basis.

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    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
  153. Re:All I want ina browser... by cos(0) · · Score: 1

    > I want the ability to filter cookies based on the domain they came from. /. cookies - Yes. Doubleclick - No.
    > I want the ability to filter JavaScript based on the domain.

    You can do these things in IE 5.0 or newer -- go into Internet Options -> Security tab, and add Slashdot to the Trusted sites, and Doubleclick and whatever else to Restricted. Then modify the settings of each category to your own preferences.

    That's what I do, and it works great.

  154. Well, now, that's a first! by Anomolous+Cow+Herd · · Score: 1
    IE6 being the first browser to implement the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) standard.

    Well, there's a change. For once, M$ is implementing an industry standard in their browser. Too bad their support of W3C standards are sketchy at best. Oh well, I guess when you own the market, you can just make up your own standards as you go along...

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    "I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." - George Bush
  155. Not real standards by TrollMaster3000 · · Score: 1

    XML standards? Actually Mozilla IS. IE is not up to date with standards. It only works with M$ standards, not REAL standards.

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    I'm no punk bitch !!!
  156. -turbo eats 15MB of ram by Boba001 · · Score: 1

    I'd hope Mozilla loads faster since it's eating an extra 15MB of ram without a browser window even open. It jumps up to around 23MB with just one window open...

  157. Re:Atrocious by Anomynous+Cowand · · Score: 1
    His point was that other sites "aren't today" but Microsoft has positioned MSN to "not lose" by default. And MSN CAN do something that other sites CAN'T.

    Look at it step by step:

    First, let's start with some working assumptions. Assume that cookies "benefit" advertisers in some financial way. Another assumption is that consumers will not change default settings. As I've said before, 50% of users require help desk assistance to change their screen savers. Just because you're smart enough to use a computer does not mean you can apply that intelligence or experience to Joe6Pack@AOL.COM.

    Next, look at how cookies work: they are served up when images on a web page are delivered. This happens one of two ways: either the server delivering the page delivers the images, or someother server does.

    The model by which most web advertisers work is: they host the images (exchanging cookies and thus deriving benefit) for other servers. The somewhat unique model by which MSN works is: they both host the pages AND the advertising.

    IE 6 will now block "third party" cookies by default. Advertisers operating under the first model are "third parties". This will deprive these advertisers of the "benefits" derived from distributing cookies. MSN operates under the second model, and will not lose the benefit.

    Finally, the 'M' in MSN stands for Microsoft -- the same company distributing the browser that will no longer provide benefits to those other advertisers. It's the point of the whole article: Microsoft is leveraging advantage unfairly.

    It's not silly. It's real money and they are real businesses that will make less money, putting real people out of real jobs. Whether or not you like them, whether or not you think all advertisers should go out of business and straight to hell, this will harm many of them. It will also harm the independent web site operators whose pages are currently paid for by third party advertisers. It will not harm Microsoft in the least, because they ensured they would not be affected.

  158. SMoke and Mirrors by mathieukhor · · Score: 3

    That's good, but I wanted to point out that P3P, like almost everything coming out of the privacy space is just smoke and mirrors.

    P3P will allow a company to *describe* it's privacy policies versus every element/form/ or page on their site. It's a start, and will be the glue to enable a privacy "UI"'s. What it won't do is provide any means of enforcement. That is, just becasue site "x" says we don't divulge your purchase habits doesn't mean you can trust them.