Keep your surfing to yourself
Hide your browsing history from prying eyes with InPrivate
By Jay Munro
Privacy seems to be getting harder to find in this
age of public databases, surveillance cameras, and online social
networking. Because of the nature of the web, it's pretty easy for
someone using your computer to see what you've been up to on the web,
as well as it is for a website to track where you've been. In this
column, I'm going to show you how Internet Explorer 8 and InPrivate can
help keep your surfing private, particularly when you share a computer
with others.
Most of the time, you don't really care whether
anyone knows which websites you've been visiting. Everybody looks at
talking cats on YouTube, right? However, you might not want to disclose
your destinations when you're banking at a kiosk, buying your sweetheart
a birthday gift, or doing anything you shouldn't be doing at work.
In the past, the only way to cover your tracks on a
shared computer was to delete your entire browsing history, which often
deleted things you wanted to keep. Internet Explorer has given you some
new ways to manually clear existing history, and a way to not leave a
new history trail.
Clear your history manually
When you clear your history manually in Internet
Explorer 8, you can choose to keep the cookies and temporary files
associated with your saved favorites. This can help preserve preferences
that you might have chosen on your favorite websites. To clear your
history without upsetting your favorites, do the following:
-
In Internet Explorer, click the Safety button, and then click Delete Browsing History.
-
In the Delete Browsing History dialog, select the Preserve Favorites website data check box.
-
Select the check boxes for the things you want to delete, and then click Delete.
Your browsing history will be deleted, but any
data associated with your favorites will stay. If you're new to Internet
Explorer 8, you'll notice that the check boxes are sticky. Internet
Explorer 8 remembers your settings so the next time you go to delete
your history, it's set the way you want it.
Using InPrivate Browsing to surf without leaving a trail
Clearing your history by hand is fine, but
InPrivate Browsing lets you avoid leaving a trail on your computer in
the first place. This way you can choose when you leave a trail, and
when you don't. To use InPrivate Browsing, do one of the following in
Internet Explorer:
-
Click the New Tab button, and then click Open an InPrivate Browsing window.
New Tab button -
Click the Safety button, and then click InPrivate Browsing.
-
Press Ctrl+Shift+P.
When you start InPrivate Browsing, it opens a
new window. As you browse, Internet Explorer 8 tucks away your cookies,
temporary files, and other bits of history. When you close the browsing
window, all of that is deleted. Keep this in mind if you're using a
kiosk at the airport and you hear last call for boarding. Take that
extra couple of seconds to close your InPrivate window.
Why doesn't InPrivate just toss that stuff in
the first place? InPrivate needs to save a few things for your session
so websites work correctly while you're browsing. For example, cookies
are used by many sites to keep track of your choices, site preferences,
and other things. If you change a setting on a website during your
browsing session, InPrivate remembers during that session, but discards
the information when you close the window. The next time you return to
the website, your previous preferences are intact.
InPrivate Browsing can be used for viewing any
website where you don't want to leave a history. I use it when I check
my bank balance at work. I'm fairly confident our network administrators
don't care which bank I use, but I'd rather not have that information
on my computer. Note: If you only go to a site from within InPrivate
Browsing, you have to re-enter user names, passwords, and other data
every time you visit a website, as I do with my bank account
information. But no history is what we want, right?
What InPrivate Browsing doesn't do
Just as important as what InPrivate does do, is what it doesn't
do. It's not anonymous browsing, so while you don't leave a trail on
your computer, you might leave one on the web. Websites might be able to
identify you by your browsing behavior on the site, or anything about
your connection that can be recorded, such as your IP address. It also
doesn't prevent someone on your network, like as a network administrator
or a hacker, from seeing where you went, and possibly what you did on
those pages.
If you save any favorites or feeds, or add a
favorite or Web Slice to the Favorites bar, or install anything while
browsing InPrivate, closing the browser window won't remove any of that.
Changes to Internet Explorer settings, such as adding a new home page,
are also retained after you end your InPrivate Browsing session.
If you use toolbars that save history or
information on your computer, that isn't removed, either. Because of
this, Internet Explorer disables all toolbars and extensions by default
in an InPrivate window.
You can re-enable your toolbars by going to the Privacy tab in Internet Options and clearing the Disable toolbars and extensions when InPrivate Browsing starts check box.
InPrivate Browsing also doesn't protect you
from malicious software or risky websites. If you download content or
view sites known for hosting malware, you're not going to be any safer
browsing with InPrivate than browsing without it. Internet Explorer
offers security features that can help protect you from malicious sites,
and that warn you not to download unknown software. However, if you
still download and run a program that has a virus, your computer's going
to get it.
For more information on what InPrivate does and doesn't do, as well as how to turn on disabled add-ons, see What is InPrivate Browsing?
Keeping your surfing habits out of the hands of unwanted websites
While InPrivate Browsing helps you stay in
control of your web surfing trail, InPrivate Filtering helps give you
more control over who's keeping an eye on you online. To understand what
InPrivate Filtering can help you with, you need to understand a little
about how websites get online content.
Did you know that when you visit many of your
favorite or trusted websites, other websites may also know you've been
there? A lot of websites use third parties to provide
content—advertising, weather gizmos, maps, analytical tools—to enhance
your experience while on the site. The elements you most enjoy on some
webpages may be placed there by a variety of third–party providers. It's
just how the web works.
You're probably thinking, "So what?" Well, when you visit a favorite
website, it gets some information from your browser—browser type,
operating system, IP address, screen resolution. When you visit a
website that has third-party content, that content provider can also get
that information.
That's probably not too bad, but let's say you
go to different websites that use the same content from the same
third-party provider. Now that provider knows you care about its
content, and also knows you visit all those websites. In time, the
provider can develop a profile of your web surfing habits. When combined
with other information—like if you clicked through to a specific ad and
entered a contest—the provider can paint a pretty good picture of your
web browsing preferences.
Now, the web doesn't always work very well
without these third-party arrangements and a little give and take. You
get free content in exchange for viewing advertising or providing some
information. This system works and is usually mutually beneficial. And
of course with targeted advertising, you just might get ads for
something you're actually looking for.
Using InPrivate Filtering to help maintain your privacy
But there are some content providers you don't
want to know your surfing habits. This can be for any reason; that's
your choice. Here's how InPrivate Filtering can help you better control
that information.
InPrivate Filtering isn't designed to block ads,
and it doesn't have a hidden agenda. It only looks for content on a
webpage that comes from someplace other than the website you're on. It
doesn't know the difference between a weather report you want and an ad
you don't. Also, when you block content on a website, you could get
either a poor experience with missing elements, or the site might not
work at all. That can happen when website contains a web analysis tool
that isn't a visually obvious to you, but is financially necessary to
the website. If you want to block the content that helps the website pay
the bills, the site might not want you to be there.
InPrivate Filtering provides a way for you to
see which third-party websites are receiving your browsing information,
and lets you choose which to allow and which to block. Like InPrivate
Browsing, InPrivate Filtering is applied per-session—you have to turn it
on every time you open your browser. You don't have to open a special
window; just do one of the following to start using InPrivate Filtering:
-
Select InPrivate Filtering from the Safety menu.
-
Click the InPrivate Filter icon on the Internet Explorer status bar.
-
Press Ctrl+Shift+F.
When InPrivate Filtering is turned off, the status bar icon is gray 
, and is in color 
when InPrivate Filtering is on. Click the icon, or press Ctrl+Shift+F
once, and InPrivate Filter is on. Do it again, and InPrivate Filtering
is off.
, and is in color
when InPrivate Filtering is on. Click the icon, or press Ctrl+Shift+F
once, and InPrivate Filter is on. Do it again, and InPrivate Filtering
is off.
See who else could have been watching you
InPrivate Filtering is always looking for and
tracking third-party content that shows up on many different websites.
Let's take a look and see which sites could have been watching you.
Click the Safety button, and then click InPrivate Filtering settings. If this is the first time you've opened the InPrivate Filtering settings, click Let me choose which providers receive my information.
The settings dialog box will display a list of content providers. If
you've been using Internet Explorer 8 for a while, you probably have a
good number of providers in the list.
With InPrivate Filtering, you have three
options: turn it off and don't block anything, automatically block
third-party providers, or manually choose which ones to allow or block.
When you visit a website with third-party content, the filter makes a
note of it. When you go to another website that has the same content,
the filter adds to the count for that provider. When you cross a
threshold of the number of websites that use some specific content, the
content provider shows up in the list. By default, the threshold is 10
websites, but you can change it from 3–30. Once a content provider is on
your list, InPrivate Filtering will block or allow it based on your
preferences.
If you ever wonder how many things are blocked
on a webpage, point your mouse at the InPrivate Filtering icon in the
status bar.
The pro and con of blocking third parties
The pro: We all know there are
security risks on the web. You could be exposed to potentially malicious
content or conduct on any website. Add in third-party content, and your
risk comes from both the website you visit and the third-party content
on it. While the site you're visiting may be trustworthy, you don't
always know who is delivering additional content.
The con: The Internet works best when
websites link to each other, and that model has brought a lot of content
to the web for free. The benefit of allowing third-party content is
that many websites can offer content for free that you would otherwise
have to pay for. Free mail accounts, weather and traffic reports,
talking cat movies, and other cool stuff we love is free because
websites are willing to subsidize it in exchange for your eyes and
information.
Internet Explorer 8 is all about choice. You
have the choice of whether or not to leave a history trail on your
computer; you can delete existing history without losing preferences on
your favorites; and you can identify, block, or allow third-party
content that's used on multiple sites. It's all up to you, so go forth
and surf!
Resources
If you'd like to read more about Internet Explorer features, check out the IE Blog,
where you can get information straight from the Internet Explorer
developers. For more information about how Microsoft protects your
privacy, see the Internet Explorer privacy statement online.
About the author
Jay Munro is a writer on the Windows team at Microsoft, specializing in Internet Explorer. Previously, he was a project leader with PC Magazine labs and a freelance writer for PC Magazine, Extreme Tech, PC Today, C-Net, Computer Shopper, and other magazines.
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