Anyone perusing porn sites at home will appreciate Microsoft’s latest efforts at browser privacy, but it’s not clear it will do much for the enterprise. Web Explorer product manager Andrew Ziegler discussed the new privacy features of IE8, currently in its second beta, in an extensive blog post Monday. Users of the new software will be able to turn on Microsoft’s InPrivate Browsing and Blocking features.

When what many observers are calling “porn mode” is turned on, IE8 doesn’t store history, cookies, structure documents, passwords, URLs, search queries or visited urls.

Porn Mode?

Ziegler suggested the need for such privacy is completely on the up-and-up. “Maybe you need to buy a gift for a loved one without ruining the surprise,” he wrote. “Maybe you’re at an World Wide Web kiosk and don’t want the next person using it to know at which Web site you bank.”

While the problem of clearing sensitive passwords on public machines is

real, observers say the hands-down, number-one reason most humans would want to clear history, URLs and search queries is to erase signs of pornography viewing. “The most likely situation is the obvious one. Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more,” said Ars Technica. “Microsoft dishes dirt on IE8 ‘prOn mode,’” British Web site the Register smirked.

citizens can do what they want at home, but enterprises need to know where folks are surfing at work. Porn surfing can expose a corporation to liability for sexual harassment, and managers obviously need to know employees are working.

Blocking Third-Party Tracking

“The enterprise is more concerned with keeping user data guarded from untrusted Web sites than making certain your off-business World Wide Web habits are kept secret,” said Andrew Storms, director of defense operations at nCircle Network shield, in an e-mail. “The features so far described by Microsoft seem to fall more squarely into the…

Original post by dhiram