Microsoft has added a function to its Internet Explorer 9 web browser enabling users to designate sites which will be blocked from tracking their online behaviour.
The new feature will allow users of Internet Explorer 9 to create and subscribe to lists of sites with which they don’t want to share information, including ads that target people based on their surfing behavior.
The Wall Street Journal reported that this is the resurrection of a feature that Microsoft considered for an earlier version of Internet Explorer but dropped due to advertiser opposition. Microsoft execs couched it as part of their ongoing talks with regulators in Washington and Europe on the issue of web privacy.
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report that criticised the online ad industry for doing too little to protect consumers from aggressive online tracking.
Internet Explorer and other browsers allow users to opt out of all tracking cookies, and to clear their browsers after a session to delete any files left their by web sites and third-party tracking firms. The new feature allows users to opt out of some sites but not others.
“You can look at this as a translation of the “Do Not Call” list from the telephone to the browser and web,” Microsoft Senior VP for Internet Explorer Dean Hachamovitch wrote in a blog post. “It complements many of the other approaches being discussed for browser controls of Do Not Track.”
Microsoft is offering the code for its “Tracking Protection List” under a Creative Commons license so other browsers could also implement the functionality and recognize the choices reflected in the lists.
Internet Explorer has been losing share, but it’s still the most popular browser in the world with 58% of the market, according to Net Applications. Mozilla’s Firefox has 23% and Google’s Chrome, launched last year, has 9.3%.
Read the full Microsoft blog here.
