Sunday, September 14, 2008

Privacy concerns

When Chrome, the new browser from Google, became available a short while ago, there was talk of a "privacy" feature. This would allow the user to do "secret" web surfing - say if someone was wanting to investigate a present they wanted to give to someone, or research a holiday for that special someone - and leave no trace of it on a communal computer. This "private browsing" mode is also known as "porn mode" because the browser erases all traces of the session - so it's as though the sites were never visited. I had thought this was a new feature but apparently it's been around in some browsers for a couple of years - and was pioneered by Apple, according to the report I read in Monkey_Bites. Privacy mode does have legitimate uses - say on public computers where you don't want your banking or email log-ins tracked. Hmmm, I wonder if the privacy mode also prevents key strokes from being logged - now that could be really useful.

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