Microsoft Adds 'Porn Mode' to Internet Explorer 8

Worried about your girlfriend, wife, or mom seeing all the dirty stuff you check out online? Well, fear not, perv, as Microsoft's 8th edition of Internet Explorer (IE) will include a feature that lets you surf the Web without a trace of what you checked out.

The new tool, called InPrivate Browsing, will debut later this month in the second Beta version of IE 8. When you, um, turn this feature on, IE will not save your browsing or search history, cookies, form data, or passwords, and will clear its cache when you're, um, done. While Microsoft says it's designed for people using public or shared computers, do we really need to explain why this is being dubbed "porn mode?"

Other new features include InPrivate Blocking, which tells you when content is able to track your browsing history, and InPrivate Subscription, which gives you lists of sites to block. Another change is to the "Delete Browsing History" option, which now lets you keep cookies for certain sites. Mozilla, which was supposed to have similar features in Firefox 3.0, is hoping to have it in 3.1 sometime in the next few months. Stay tuned. [From: Computerworld]

Is this Microsoft's way of trying to compete with FireFox?

Actually with other browsers or present IE, you can erase the cookies, can't you

Yeah, I'm not sure this is anything new...
In Firefox and Opera there's the "Clear Private Data" command.

dave said:

Actually with other browsers or present IE, you can erase the cookies, can't you

Click to expand...

Yes, but it sometimes does a piss poor job of it. Whenever I run CCleaner afterwards it usually picks up some (esp. flash cookies) that IE didn't delete.

I'm not a forensics expert but maybe there will be some benefit to hardcore criminals by the fact that with the new settings there will be no data stored to begin with which could later be retrieved even though it had been deleted. I don't know.

Those things will still be stored in the virtual memory file. deleting cookies and cache through the delete settings of the browser doesn't remove the stuff permanently. you need to overwrite the files several times..

Stupid macroshaft. The endless flow of originality never ceases to amaze me.

It's not "later this month", Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is available from TODAY. Get it:
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9412569

I don't want their operating system. I definitely don't want their web browser ...especially a beta.