IE9 and Tracking Protection: Microsoft disrupts the online..

Microsoft has just launched a remarkably effective tool to protect your privacy on the web. Using the IE9 RC, it takes exactly two clicks to begin blocking cookies, web beacons, and other third-party tools that track your movements and activities on the web. Here’s how it works

Continue reading at ZDNet

If you're using Firefox and you want to block trackers, try the Ghostery plug-in ..... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... /ghostery/

Thanks Gary R:

I only use Firefox with a few exception where Internet Explorer becomes a necessity. I appreciate Ghostery 2.4.2 link

You're welcome.

Thanks for the info on IE9.

Thank you both

Any time.

I thought Haider included Ed's follow-up article on TPL. I consider it a "must read" if you are going to use TPLs. If you get nothing else from the article, note at least this:

So who can you trust? That question is especially important when you take into account the design of this feature in the IE9 RC. You can install multiple TPLs, and an Allow rule on any list trumps a Block rule on another list. So if you’re the owner of a big network of web properties, and you see a site visitor arrive using IE9, wouldn’t you want to helpfully offer that visitor the option to install a Tracking Protection List that whitelists all your domains? All in the interests of improved user experience, of course. {Emphasis added}

Then see the following from further in the article:

As you can see from the table, TRUSTe’s current TPL represents advertisers, not consumers. TRUSTe’s TPL, unlike any of the others, consists exclusively of Allow rules for entire domains. Remember: Allow rules trump Block rules. So, if your domain is one of the nearly 4000 on the current version of the TRUSTe list, you’ve got a Get Out of Jail free card in IEP with any user who installs the TRUSTe list.

Complete article: Privacy protection and IE9: who can you trust?

A blocker is only as good as the list behind it.

The author mentions he'll close out the series with Mozilla and Google's take on privacy. I'm rather sad that he's skipping Opera.

True, ellipse. The problem will be people who think that they are blocking tracking by enabling all four current lists but do not realize that the Truste list has effectively removed the blocking provided by the other lists.

Ah, I see, thanks. Too bad there isn't a way to put a neon sign up that says "Do not download the TRUSTe list!"

I'm sure there will be other lists that will have vested interests in protecting their customers. We've seen how easily people are taken in by the rogues. Just like everything else, education is key.

Hi Corrine:

Are you referring to The one security tool every Windows user should know about

Hi, Haider. No, I wasn't referring to EMET. I was thinking about what Ed Bott wrote about TPL's:

So if you’re the owner of a big network of web properties, and you see a site visitor arrive using IE9, wouldn’t you want to helpfully offer that visitor the option to install a Tracking Protection List that whitelists all your domains? All in the interests of improved user experience, of course.

We see how easily people are fooled by rogues so why wouldn't they also think they are getting a helpful TPL from a site they visit? Just the other day, I received a message from someone I know asking if I would answer a couple of security concerns about her PC.

I am getting frustrated here with trying to resolve some of these issues. First of all, how "safe" is Windows as a whole? For example, if Windows Security page pops up from the internet and says your computer has been infected and if you don't download their program your computer will crash?

This was her first experience with malware. All she was doing was looking at coloring page printouts in preparation for a Girl Scout meeting. She clicked a link in the search results and BAM! She was immediately redirected to a "Windows Security" pop-up that said she had several high to critical security threats and that her computer was in danger of crashing unless she downloaded the program. Her A/V picked up on it immediately and quarantined the download -- which had started without any action on her part.

So, what if, instead, when she landed on the "coloring page", there was a message displayed something along the lines of . . .

Did you know you are being tracked? The links you click, the path you took to get to this site is all being recorded. In order to block tracking, Microsoft has provided the ability to add "Tracking Protection Lists" to Internet Explorer 9 for your privacy. For your convenience, we provide our customers with a custom Tracking Protection List. Click here to add our list.


Perhaps the list includes a few valid tracking domains but it whitelists its own site domains. The "allow" has obviated the block provided by any other list(s) the person has installed. Thus, my comment that education is key and the need to understand, as Ed put it, "Allow rules trump Block rules."

"Corrine" wrote:Thus, my comment that education is key

Absolutely, most adults could operating a car but they need to be educated in how to do it safely. Same for operating a computer on today's web... people need to know how to do it safely.

Unfortunately a lot of people just want to get on, get it done and get off... it's too much effort otherwise. Then... they come to places like this.

"Corrine" wrote:Thus, my comment that education is key

"Wingman" wrote:Unfortunately a lot of people just want to get on, get it done and get off... it's too much effort otherwise. Then... they come to places like this.

...reason being a vast majority (household) uses it as entertainment device!