Filtering Facts

Today I have seen two TV news stations taking the approach that Internet Explorer 8 will disrupt web filters.  The first from KSL TV:

Microsoft change impacts some filtering software

Microsoft has made some big changes to its Internet Explorer. But one change in particular might make your Internet filtering software useless…you could use a feature on the latest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer called InPrivacy Browsing. Firefox and Safari browsers have offered something like this for a long time, but it’s new on Internet Explorer. It lets you browse the Web without logging the sites you visit. It’s been nicknamed “The Porn Mode” because it leaves no history behind, and it could sidestep some filtering software.

InPrivate Browsing doesn’t block anything – it removes the history of where you went on the Internet from your PC.  This doesn’t impact URL filters, which typically either block from a database of URLs or scan a page for keywords.  InPrivate Blocking blocks websites from collecting information, and this shouldn’t impact URL filtering either.  I think the confusion comes from the unfortunate nick name “Porn Mode” – some people are just assuming that means IE 8 allows for viewing pornography, which is inaccurate.    The second news stories is from KIDK TV.

From the Internet Explorer blog:

• InPrivate^TM Browsing lets you control whether or not IE saves your browsing history, cookies, and other data

• InPrivate^TM Blocking informs you about content that is in a position to observe your browsing history, and allows you to block it

I’d love to see some of the people who work at filtering companies weigh in on this.

Disclaimer: I work at Microsoft, but not on the Internet Explorer team.

–David Burt