Microsoft has announced new privacy features for IE8. Announced on Monday the new features are designed to make it easier for users to delete and control their web browsing history.
One of the new features includes a new In Private Browsing window. When the window is closed IE8 does not store any cookies, passwords, addresses, files or pretty much anything other details of your browsing session.
Another new feature aims to address a shortcoming in the way the current version of IE lets people delete their browsing history. In IE7 and previous version when a user deletes their browsing history, they also get rid of cookies that are used to save preferences tied to Web sites that they might visit often.
With IE8, users can delete their browsing history but still have the history of frequently visited sites. The implementation for this could be a bit akward for users at first, but once the frequently visited sites are added to their favourites list they will be saved when the browsing history is deleted.
Microsoft’s new features also help users have better control over the information shared between themselves and third parties. Often companies store our details without us even knowing and can supply content to multiple sites. The new IE8 feature “InPrivate Blocking” will block providers that have stored information about a user on more than 10 sites. Users can also choose to allow or block which ever content they want.
Microsoft is expected to release another beta of IE8 this month and release the final code before the end of this year.
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In the run up to and during the Beijing Olympics, there has been a groundswell of online activity attempting to bypass the strict sensors, to show another side to the Olympics. A group of Chinese bloggers and human rights protestors have been using various Web 2.0 tools to get their point across and protest against human right violations.
An example is Chinese blogger Zhou “Zuola” Shuguang who had many followers of his Twitter feed riveted to his Tweets detailing his detainment by the Chinese government. This was all taking place whilst he was being detained, with his posts being updated and translated for the world to see.
The activity was not limited to Chinese protesters, there were a number of US and European human rights protestors in Beijing at the time as well. A US based protestor Eddie Romaro claimed on his MySpace page that he was hiding from the Chinese police but plans to turn himself in.
Anne Donohue, a professor of journalism at Boston University currently working at the People’s University in Beijing, says that despite the heavy use of Twitter and live streaming site Qik by protestors, the total number of online protestors has so far been “tiny”, far less than what was expected. She puts in an e-mail, “It has been very quiet with the occasional Tibetan banner/flag. I have a VPN that allows me to see anything I want, but I have not heard of any new, more aggressive censorship. It’s just the same old ‘whack-a-mole’ approach they’ve consistently employed.”
She also noted in an e-mail that Chinese authorities acted quickly when photos of a young girl deemed too unattractive to be shown singing during the opening ceremonies appeared online. The photos were immediately deleted, she says.
Whilst the Chinese authorities have been largely successful in quashing protests, these examples show the power of Web 2.0 and how difficult it is to censor.
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