Have you ever wondered who is tracking your every click online? No, you should be and Windows thinks you should be protected against tracking cookies. They have updated their newest browser to help keep tracking cookies from giving websites information about your online movements.
Windows Internet Explorer IE9 will release a new updated version of the new browser in January that will give the user the ability to stop tracking cookies from taking information from the browser. The feature works by having a list of websites that it can and cannot release your tracking information to.
Dean Hachamovitch, the head of Internet Explorer development, explained the feature on Microsoft’s IE blog, comparing the feature to a “Do Not Call” list that is used to keep tell marketers from calling your home. Hachamovitch said, “A Tracking Protection List (TPL) contains Web addresses (like msdn.com) that the browser will visit (or “call”) only if the consumer visits them directly by clicking on a link or typing their address.” The TPL keeps websites advertisers to service providers from following your every move.
When the new version of IE9 is released in 2011, browser users will need to manually go in and turn on the feature. IE will also provide a list of websites that can be copied and pasted in the TPL to format the list, but the user will also have search for lists because they are not provided with the update. Windows is giving their users more control over who sees their footprints online. You will be able to control what websites can track and which cannot.
Until now, online users have not been able to control who tracks them and who does. This will help keep people’s privacy private. Controlling who is watching your Internet activities is now up to you.