For about nine months now, the Redmond, Wash.-based company has been building tools based on an evolving privacy standard dubbed P3P, for the Platform for Privacy Preferences. On this topic Newsletters Supersite Manager. Specifically, IE 6 privacy enhancements detailed Wednesday are designed to let consumers set the browser to alert them to the privacy policies used at visited corporate sites. Wallent and other company officials were on a P3P road show in Washington on Wednesday briefing privacy advocates, content builders, and ISPs about the new capabilities. Microsoft's privacy tools use XML technology and agreed-upon privacy terminology on compliant sites.
Cookies are information bits tagged on users' hard drives to show surfing behavior.
Settings in the middle range include more complicated criteria. The tools let users make decisions based on whether cookies are being placed directly by visited sites or by third parties. IE 6 could deny placement of a cookie if it detects that personal information is being gathered or shared for outside purposes. But some privacy advocates have voiced sentiments that P3P alone is not enough to fend off privacy infringements. But a big concern now among consumers is cookies and Web bugs or hidden tracking of information across the Internet.