Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Microsoft on What's Related

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:3/18/1999; 3:27:21 PM
Topic:Microsoft on What's Related
Msg #:4257
Prev/Next:4256 / 4258

Dave, I read on scripting.com that you were disappointed to see Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5 adding a Related Sites feature (via partnership with Alexa) because of potential invasion of user privacy. I wanted to make sure you know that we spent a lot of time understanding the privacy concerns our users have when we decided to include the feature, and in fact specifically designed our implementation around privacy - which is very different than the Netscape implementation you cite.

Netscape's implementation posts to the server the URL of sites you are browsing *before* you press the What's Related button, which means even if you are not interested in related sites the server receives that information. But with Internet Explorer we only post the URL you are viewing at the time that you choose to see related sites, which means that it is nothing more than an automated lookup in a search engine at the time of the request - it doesn't track pages as you browse, only when you click Tools/ Related Sites.

Also, the little data that is sent to the server is looked at only by Alexa's server, and you can read their privacy policy (audited by TrustE) at http://www.truste.org/policy/26/

We really wanted to make sure our customers receive a "privacy enhanced" version of the related-sites feature, and I had hoped that we had delivered this. I would like to know if you have any other ideas on how we could improve the privacy of this feature

Hadi Partovi, Group Program Manager, Internet Explorer

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