Sina Technology News, February 6th morning Beijing Time -- According to a report on PC World on Sunday, Microsoft took advantage of the dissatisfaction with Google's change in privacy policy last week by placing advertisements in major newspapers to promote the differences between its products and designs compared to Google's. It also promoted Internet Explorer 9 and the Bing search engine on its official blog.
Although IE 9 has had the tracking protection feature for some time, now is the best time for Microsoft to remind users about this feature. Microsoft also pointed out that it has made extensive changes to Bing which users may not be familiar with. The tracking protection feature in IE 9 can prevent companies from tracking user online behavior, a practice that is common but many users do not realize.
The media conducted an in-depth investigation into corporate tracking behavior last year. The results showed that the top 50 websites in the U.S. installed an average of 64 tracking technologies on users' computers when they visited. The media also revealed new tools used by companies to review user web behavior and even filter data such as location, income, shopping interests, and health conditions. Worst of all: some tracking tools have the ability to recreate after users delete their data.
In conclusion, user behavior is being tracked, and Google shares personal data across all its products. If these issues are troubling users, then the tracking protection feature in IE 9 is worth trying.
First, users need to download IE 9. After restarting the computer, open Explorer, click on "get more add-ons" in the favorites at the top of the page, and then click on "tracking protection lists" at the top of the page. Subsequently, users can choose from lists created by various non-Microsoft entities. These features are used to prevent websites from automatically sending user visit details to other content providers.
When users use these lists, under the condition that the "tracking protection list" is not disabled, Microsoft will send a "do not track" signal to the websites and related third-party websites that users visit. However, this method is not 100% effective. Microsoft pointed out that some websites may continue to track users even if they adopt this method.
Fairly speaking, Google said it provides users with several ways to protect privacy, including opting out of Wi-Fi tracking and targeted advertising modes, and offering the "Me on the Web" feature which provides private data and content removal notifications.
Besides focusing on tracking protection, Microsoft is also trying to get users to use some services recently launched by the Bing browser, such as the FanSnap tool for comparing event ticket prices. Besides paying attention to tempting features, search results are what matter most. Google includes Google+ post content on the search results page, a practice that may lead more users to switch to using Bing.
It is worth noting that the competition between Microsoft and Google is becoming increasingly fierce. Ultimately, whoever stands out, users will benefit because both companies are striving to surpass each other through innovation. (Yuran)
Share to: > Related reports: EU letters to Google CEO requesting suspension of new privacy policies, Microsoft launches a new round of advertising campaigns accusing Google of profiting from privacy, Google defends its new privacy rules saying it still does no evil, Google modifies privacy policies causing controversy. Weibo recommendations | Sina Technology's Official Weibo Account >> More