Hogan & Hartson Publications "Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 InPrivate Browsing May Affect Online Activities." Privacy Update, Hogan & Hartson LLP, 08.28.2008

Mark Paulding, Christine A. Varney, Mary Ellen Callahan

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 InPrivate Browsing May Affect Online Activities

On August 25, 2008, Microsoft announced on its Internet Explorer Blog that Internet Explorer 8, for which Beta 2 was released on August 27, 2008, included a new suite of features designed to limit the information stored or shared when users browse the Internet. Collectively referred to as InPrivate and described in greater detail in Trustworthy Browsing – Guidance for Third Party Content Providers (rev. August 21, 2008), a whitepaper distributed by Microsoft to select web publishers and content providers, these new features include Deleting Browser History, InPrivate Browsing, InPrivate Blocking, and InPrivate Subscriptions. If these new features are successfully implemented as they are presently described in Microsoft’s documents, they may have a significant impact on a number of common Internet business practices, including online behavioral marketing and web traffic analytics.