Wankster’s Paradise

This week we’ve seen lots of talk about two flashy new browsers that have recently been launched in beta versions. First up, we have the latest iteration of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, IE8, with which it hopes to gain ground on – among others – Mozilla’s successful Firefox application.

Hot on the heels of Microsoft comes Google’s first foray into the browser market with its own beta, called Chrome. (Chromium is the name of the open-source project which led to its development, for all you curtains-closed bed-sit dwellers out there.)

Of course, both these betas come with spangly new features and functions – higher speeds, more robust security, clearer user interfaces and so forth. It’s a shame, then, that most of the public and press have focused on their respective privacy features: Google’s Incognito and Explorer’s InPrivate modes. When activated, these settings prevent the browser from storing any history information or cookies from websites visited. Inevitably, this has been dubbed “porn mode” by…well, everyone.

Of course, both companies attempted to re-define their “porn modes” with spurious alternative reasons for use. Quote of the week comes from a spokesman for Google who (presumably sticking a needle into his thumb to stop himself from dissolving into giggles) straight-facedly claimed Incognito was “…for times when you want to…plan surprises like gifts or birthdays.”

No – it’s to stop the wife from knowing, rather than merely suspecting, that you look at some of the most repulsive pornography on the web.

Hairy-palmed husbands will no doubt welcome both browsers, as will the latest generation of gangly girl-shy teenagers who still use their parents’ Internet connection.

But will the “porn modes” prevent Microsoft and Google from storing your search terms and IP address? As we know, search engines already store records of who you are (IP address), where you’ve been (URLs) and what you’ve looked for (search terms). What’s to stop, say, Google from identifying you and your browsing behaviour for definitely-not-evil-at-all uses?

Er…nothing. Users who leave Chrome’s auto-suggest feature on and have Google as their default search provider will be giving Google access to any keystrokes that are typed into the browser’s Omnibox, even before they hit enter. Google have been good enough to admit to this: a representative said that that about “two per cent” of the data would be stored along with the IP address of the computer that sent the information.

In theory, that means that if one were merely to type the address of a site into the Omnibox, even without hitting enter one could leave incriminating evidence on Google’s servers.

I’ve got no problem with anyone – website publisher, search engine, browser – knowing where I’ve been. My problem is in them knowing who I am. Since they store IP addresses – and God knows what other personally identifiable information – that’s exactly what they do know.

Google says that turning on the Incognito mode will prevent it from harvesting your search queries alongside your IP address. If that’s true (and why would anyone doubt good-guy-Google’s word?) then the privacy modes could have an audience outside of the dirty mac brigade; I for one.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/02/google_chrome_comic_funnies/