IE privacy setting is just a joke, now this is clear.
In our safe surfing guide series (part 4), we recommended you to dump IE and choose a better web browser, e.g., Chrome or Firefox, or SeaMonkey. Today, you get another reason to dump it forever!
On Feb. 20, Microsoft claimed that Google has been bypassing the user-defined privacy settings in Internet Explorer by using incorrect P3P identification terms:
Technically, Google utilizes a nuance in the P3P specification that has the effect of bypassing user preferences about cookies … By sending this text, Google bypasses the cookie protection and enables its third-party cookies to be allowed rather than blocked
Google’s response gave us a clearer picture.:
Microsoft uses a “self-declaration” protocol (known as “P3P”) dating from 2002 under which Microsoft asks websites to represent their privacy practices in machine-readable form. It is well known – including by Microsoft – that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing modern web functionality. We have been open about our approach, as have many other websites.
Today the Microsoft policy is widely non-operational. A 2010 research report indicated that over 11,000 websites were not issuing valid P3P policies as requested by Microsoft.
If the privacy settings in your browser is so easy to pass, it just proved IE is crappy. And, it was, it is and it will be!
Anyway, if you are still using IE, it is time to change, change for a better web browser.
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