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IE8 Will Contain an Accidental Ad Blocker

Posted by kdawson on from the inprivate-blocking dept.

JagsLive sends in a Washington Post blog post reflecting on one privacy-enhancing feature of the upcoming Internet Explorer 8, the so-called "InPrivate Blocking" that has privacy advocates quietly cheering, and advertisers seriously worrying. Here is Microsoft's description of the feature. From the Post: "The advertising industry is bracing for trouble from the next version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, details of which were announced today, because it will offer a feature that blocks some ads and other content from third-parties that shows up on Web pages. A Microsoft spokesman said that the feature, to be known as 'InPrivate Blocking,' was never designed to be an ad blocker, though 'there may be ads that get blocked.' Instead, it was designed to stop tracking 'pixels' or pieces of code that could allow third-party sites to track users as they move around the Web."

2 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Who the hell is drinking this cool-aid? by AuMatar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually no. I know plenty of non-computer people who I off hand mentioned ad blocking to. Generally the reaction is a stunned look followed by "you can do that?" and begging me to set it up for them. Most people don't even know it exists.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  2. Re:They just don't get it do they by Bryansix · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am not against advertising, but I am against adverts that:

    1) Suck up 50% of my CPU.

    You mean like those Dice ads that Slashdot was displaying forever even though I emailed them repeatedly and told them it was crashing my browser and slowing down my computer?