Beijing time on February 21st, Microsoft wrote on its official blog on Monday, accusing Google of circumventing the privacy settings of IE browser to track user browsing behavior. Previous reports have pointed out that Google bypasses the privacy settings of Apple's Safari web browser to track users' browsing habits. Microsoft believes that Google has taken similar measures with its IE.
But the IE platform will be different, and the issues involved have been known to Microsoft and privacy researchers for some time. Because by default, IE is designed to block "cookie" small files from tracking companies, but the principle is quite complicated. Normally, no one would stop this behavior, but Microsoft said on Monday it was "actively investigating" whether to block cookie settings in this case.
IE uses P3P (Platform for PRvacy Preferences) privacy protection technology. This computer protocol allows websites to share their privacy policies with web browsers instead of forcing users to read every clause. The concept of P3P is good but has never been Once it really became popular, other web browsers did not support this technology.
However, IE supports P3P technology by default. If an Internet company tells IE that they track users, or does not set P3P terms at all, IE will prevent them from setting "third-party" cookie files. Advertisers and tracking companies often use this method to track user habits.
But a big loophole in this setting is that if an Internet company does not comply with the appropriate format in the P3P protocol, they can set the cookie file arbitrarily. For Google sites, they will determine "This is not a P3P agreement" and then provide a link to explain.
Privacy researchers have complained about this vulnerability in IE for years, and other companies are exploiting it. Lorrie Cranor, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, noted in a blog post that "many companies exploit this vulnerability," including Google and Facebook.
Back in 2010, Craner's research found that thousands of websites, including Microsoft's, had issues with P3P policies that allowed these companies to set cookie files in IE. Most of these problems are due to misplanting and other errors, but some are intentionally false.
Google stated in the link explanation provided that the reason why its websites do not comply with P3P regulations is because the agreement will interfere with social buttons such as +1 and gadgets on iGoogle. According to tests by the Wall Street Journal, doubleclick.net and googleadservices.com websites comply with the P3P protocol, which makes the situation of IE different from Safari. Although the latter has privacy settings, Google-owned doubleclick.net will still monitor Safari users' computers. Follow up.
Google did not immediately comment. Craner said the behavior was akin to avoidance.
Regarding the P3P protocol, the Facebook page stated: "The P3P standard is outdated and does not reflect the technology used on today's web pages." It should be noted that Microsoft has been eager to attack Google's privacy mistakes and even extract Google's new privacy policy ads.
Every time a tool attempts to block a certain behavior, such as tracking cookies, other companies come up with workarounds. In some cases, these privacy tools also complicate matters by causing trouble for devoted web developers.
Microsoft took advantage of this controversy to set up tracking protection lists for users. One of the latest features of IE9 is to allow users to create lists to block trackers. Microsoft even launched a new method on Monday to block Google's tracking. These lists will not only block cookie files, but their goal is to block any requests from the tracking company. The competition for privacy in the industry appears to be intensifying.