Internet Explorer 8 ‘Phone Home’

Internet Explorer 8 ‘Phone Home’

Author JoeDigital

IE 8 beta 2 was released earlier this month

Mimicking the suggested sites feature of Google Chrome, the new Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 also makes suggestions as you type, based on your personal experience.  But Microsoft has also caught a lot more flak concerning this feature, perhaps because the company has had such poor success in secure products when they are first released.

Microsoft assured people this week, in a press release, that the information the company retains when the browser ‘phones home’ for suggested sites, is minimal, and further goes on to say that IP addresses are discarded almost immediately.  So why is there a commotion about Microsoft doing this if its safe, and if other browsers do the same thing?

Mainly this is because Microsoft does not have a reputation of being secure, from the consumer standpoint.  A previous software product that used similar tactics was defended in much the same way, but when pressed to define ‘almost immediately’ the result turned out to be anywhere from 0 to 90 days.  That’s 3 months for your personal data to sit on the servers of one of the most attacked Internet sites in the world.  For many, this is too much of a risk.

Again, to set minds at ease, Microsoft remarks that the service requires user confirmation before it will work.  However, the ability to turn the feature off is only presented once, and will not be repeated if the software is re-installed.  For many IT professionals, the risk of a security breach is just too high for peace of mind.

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