Microsoft announced yesterday in its IE blog that it will be adding a tracking protection feature to Internet Explorer 9. In particular, Microsoft promises that:
- IE9 will offer consumers a new opt-in mechanism (“Tracking Protection”) to identify and block many forms of undesired tracking.
- “Tracking Protection Lists” will enable consumers to control what third-party site content can track them when they’re online.
Together with the FTC’s jump into the tracking fray last week, have we reached the tipping point on tracking, so that this is the beginning of the end of it? Or might this be simply another skirmish in the battle between Microsoft and Google (since Google’s primary revenue source is online ads)?