Microsoft Quashed Effort to Boost Online Privacy - WSJ.com

[StealthMonger]

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Microsoft Quashed Effort to Boost Online Privacy - WSJ.com

By NICK WINGFIELD

   The online habits of most people who use the world's dominant Web
   browser are an open book to advertisers.  That wasn't the plan at
   first.

   In early 2008, Microsoft Corp.'s product planners for the Internet
   Explorer 8.0 browser intended to give users a simple, effective way
   to avoid being tracked online.  They wanted to design the software
   to automatically thwart common tracking tools, unless a user
   deliberately switched to settings affording less privacy.

   That triggered heated debate inside Microsoft.  As the leading
   maker of Web browsers, the gateway software to the Internet,
   Microsoft must balance conflicting interests: helping people surf
   the Web with its browser to keep their mouse clicks private, and
   helping advertisers who want to see those clicks.

   In the end, the product planners lost a key part of the debate.
   The winners: executives who argued that giving automatic privacy to
   consumers would make it tougher for Microsoft to profit from
   selling online ads.  Microsoft built its browser so that users must
   deliberately turn on privacy settings every time they start up the
   software.

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