Microsoft Says IE8 Phoning Home Is "Pretty Innocuous"

CWmike writes "Microsoft has defended the IE8 tool that suggests sites based on URLs typed into its address bar, saying that the browser 'phones home' only a limited amount of information to Microsoft and that the company discards all user IP addresses almost immediately. Company managers also contrasted IE8 Beta 2's 'Suggested Sites' feature with the 'Suggest' feature used by Google Chrome, saying that Microsoft's requires the user's explicit permission before it's used. They did acknowledge a bug that prevents the request from reappearing when users reinstall the browser. Cyra Richardson, a Microsoft principal program manager on the IE team, said: 'Suggested Sites is connected to the browser's history, and it's not looking at each of the keystrokes. IE only captures the URL as it is navigated [to], when that URL goes into your history.' Nor does Suggested Sites log and transmit cookies to Microsoft's servers, as does Google Suggest, Richardson said. 'The data we log is actually pretty innocuous.'"

Comments

Suggestions?

[Waccoon]

So, we see "targeted" ads and have "suggestive" sponsorship in other browsers in exchange for getting the browser for free.

Isn't IE a part of Windows, and don't we sort of pay for it already?

Time for some absolutism.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I am sick of hearing how XYZ is ok because "Look, foo does bar!". It annoys me in politics, and it annoys me in the disgusting race to the bottom that is our handling of the "consumer desktop". Yes, I know that google is injecting ads into my dreams, that doesn't mean I want microsoft pulling my url history. Yes, I know that EA prefers DRM that is draconian and incompetent, that doesn't make "fairplay" any fairer.

People need to stop hiding behind the even worse failings of others, and start justifying themselves in terms of why they don't suck rather than why the suck incrementally less than the other guy. FFS.

/rant

Re:Just remember...

[cbiltcliffe]

My question is, what does "almost immediately" mean?

In my experience, PR/advertising/lawyer types are very careful what they say. They don't lie outright, but will frequently mislead with seemingly innocuous statements that seem to mean one thing, but when they are really looked at, mean something else entirely.
If they'd said that IP addresses were discarded immediately, that would mean that as soon as the information transaction is completed, the IP address is no longer needed, so it's discarded.

Saying "almost" immediately, means it is not discarded at this point. What does "almost" mean in this context, coming from a Microsoft PR person?
Is it discarded almost immediately, after a "small" amount of data analysis is done for marketing purposes?
Is it discarded almost immediately after a scheduled task to purge their server logs once a day?
Is it discarded almost immediately after the DOJ gets on their case about keeping it?

Did you have Google preinstalled?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or could you choose another browser?

Now, can you remove IE from windows?

RATIONAL THOUGHT, PEOPLE!