Many of us are  in a quandary, and at our wits’ end trying to figure out what to do about this online privacy thing.  I mean can we control what companies find out about us?  If yes, what does that do to our ability to surf online for information?  Does it put us as a disadvantage because we setup controls?  In fact, an article appeared in PC World By John Ribeiro, IDG News Feb 21, 2012, which reports what Google says about how newer cookie-based features are affected by Microsoft’s IE.  One example given was “Like” buttons in Facebook. Check out the full article via Google Says IE Privacy Policy Is Impractical in Modern Web | PCWorld.

Let’s review what P3P is: The Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) is a protocol allowing websites to declare their intended use of information they collect about web browser users. Designed to give users more control of their personal information when browsing, P3P was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and officially recommended on April 16, 2002. Development ceased shortly thereafter and there have been very few implementations of P3P.  Microsoft Internet Explorer is the only major browser to support P3P.
via P3P – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

It’s all very complicated! We covered what Google and Mozilla are doing about the online privacy concerns for users.  Below is a short summary of the highlights I thought you might want to know about , which Internet Explorer (IE) has posted on their Blog.  I urge you to use the links provided in this post to check out the information when you have time to read it for a thorough understanding, and how it may (or may not) affect you.

Highlights:

1. Is Google circumventing the privacy preferences of IE? Yes. via Google Bypassing User Privacy Settings – IEBlog – Site Home – MSDN Blogs
2. What does IE recommend to their users how to protect their privacy? One example IE gave is that IE9 has tracking protection which can protect you from Google.
3. IE blocks third party cookies by default unless the site has a P3P Compact Policy Statement.
4. IE has a Tracking List available for IE9 users.  Click this link to learn more via Tracking Protection – Microsoft Windows.

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When you finish reading up on all the things you can do to protect yourself,  read the article by Karl Bode at the link provided below.  His comments about “snoopvertising” will be a reality check!  via Press Realizing New Privacy Bill of Rights Won’t Do Much – ‘Do Not Track’ Doesn’t Mean What You Think it Means | DSLReports.com, ISP Information.

Perhaps what would be useful here is a quote I found from 1999!

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Polly Sprenger Email 01.26.99

The chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems said Monday that consumer privacy issues are a “red herring.”  “You have zero privacy anyway,” Scott McNealy told a group of reporters and analysts Monday night at an event to launch his company’s new Jini technology. “Get over it.” via Sun on Privacy: ‘Get Over It’.

I hope this is helpful ! 🙂