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Microsoft Says IE8 Phoning Home Is "Pretty Innocuous"

Posted by kdawson on from the unlike-that-other-browser dept.

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.'"

13 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. What did you expect them to say? by line-bundle · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We are going to use the data to sell you Zunes?"

    1. Re:What did you expect them to say? by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      If Google does it, it is because they are using the information to help us.
      If Microsoft does it, it is used for evil.

      CONSISTENCY PEOPLE!

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Google does it, they do it because they "probably have to." Luckily, they said they "do no evil" so that means they're absolute good and thus immune to scrutiny.

    If Microsoft does it, then they're obviously logging all the data on you and plan to sell it to the highest bidder, to use to pay for restrictive DRM technologies and run over old ladies in the street. Though you do not have facts to back up the last statement, you've always conceded that they are a luxury around here. Besides, Microsoft is a convicted monopolist, which somehow magically changes all the rules on logical arguments, or something.

    Did I get it all right? I know there's nothing about Apple in here, but I'll try harder next time.

    1. Re:Just remember... by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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?

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    2. Re:Just remember... by ScreamingCactus · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Almost immediately" means it's discarded right after the URL is linked to your profile in their Global Database of Evil and forwarded to hundreds of Cheap Viagra internet companies and the NSA, all of which takes about a second, which IS almost immediately.

      --
      The path to enlightenment is truly through homemade drugs!
    3. Re:Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well if you'd just RTFA... you'd see that "PR/advertising/lawyer types" did not say "almost immediately", the journalist did.

      What was said by Microsoft about the IP was quite clear:

      "We capture as little uniquely identifiable information as possible," said Cyra Richardson, a Microsoft principal program manager on the IE team. "We capture the URL that the user is visiting, the version of the browser and general locale information."

      To determine the latter, and to know where to send the suggested site results, Microsoft also captures the IP address of the user, said Richardson. But unlike Google, Microsoft tosses the IP address as soon as it delivers the recommendations. "We take the IP address, get all the information that we need from it and then throw out the address," said Andy Zeigler, a program manager with the IE group. Richardson confirmed that the Suggested Sites database contained no user IP addresses.

      But I guess that's no good for your water-cooler soap-box look-at-me speech, is it?

  3. Suggestions? by Waccoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:Suggestions? by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 5, Funny

      People pay for Windows?

      Yes, almost every time I use it.

  4. Danger Signs by StefanJ · · Score: 5, Funny

    1) After installing IE8, webcam tracks your movements around the room.

    2) Strange giggling from PC speakers when you Agree to the EULA.

    3) When you start Spybot Search & Destroy you get a phone call from someone sounding an awful lot like Jerry Seinfeld threatening your pets.

    4) Paperclip is back, and now its mad.

    5) The next time you hear the phrase "actually pretty innocuous" is in President Palin's speech about what happens in Loyal Citizens' Youth Brigade moral rectification camps.

    6) You printer puts job sheets at the beginning of each document. Job sheets with coupons for Brawndo.

    7) Activity gadget in upper right hand corner of browser is a Total Information Awareness icon.

    8) Entering URL for Chrome download page redirects to gay furry bondage snuff porn site.

    9) After refusing to upgrade to IE8 you wake up to find the Firefox's severed head on your bed.

    10) Ghost of grandmother appears to you in dream, begging you to install Ubuntu. Which is just plain weird because she was a Slackware fan!

  5. Time for some absolutism. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

  6. Gay Furry Bondage Snuff Porn! WHEE! by zooblethorpe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, I'm impressed. Googling for "gay furry bondage snuff porn" produces your post here as the top hit only a couple hours after you posted.

    Aside from being impressed, I'm also somehow disappointed... ;)

    Cheers,

    --
    "What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
    "A four-foot prune."
  7. Re:Gay Furry Bondage Snuff Porn! WHEE! by PrinceOfStorms · · Score: 5, Funny

    A quick check of this revealed that you are now number one! Congratulations...I think.

  8. Did you have Google preinstalled? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or could you choose another browser?

    Now, can you remove IE from windows?

    RATIONAL THOUGHT, PEOPLE!