Feb 25, 2011 12:55 GMT  ·  By

As of the advent of Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate, users running the browser can take advantage of a mechanism designed to block tracking by third-parties and protect their privacy while online. Following the introduction of Tracking Protection functionality in IE9 RC, Microsoft is now upping the ante when it comes down to putting consumers in control of their privacy while on the Internet.

Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President, Internet Explorer revealed that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has accepted the Redmond company’s submission of “Web Tracking Protection,” an emerging Internet standard designed to safeguard consumers from tracking.

“The proposal with the W3C is a significant step toward enabling an industry standard way for Web sites to (1) detect when consumers express their intent not to be tracked, and (2) help protect themselves from sites that do not respect that intent,” he commented.

According to Hachamovitch, browser makers, but also governments, regulators and law enforcement agencies have a responsibility to tackling privacy issues.

At this point in time, additional involvement from all parties concerned is required, not only to make it possible for users to opt to not be tracked while online, but also to offer a mechanism enabling them to set up and control tracking protection.

“IE9’s Tracking Protection also enables consumers to block the content that does the tracking,” Hachamovitch explained.

In IE9 RC users can install Tracking Protection Lists. The lists are generated by privacy organizations and they are designed to stop any personal information from being sent to tracking services at browser-level.

IE9’s Tracking Protection is at the basis of the Web Tracking Protection standard submitted to the W3C, the software giant underlines.

“The W3C’s involvement provides the best forum possible for that technology discussion. Just as the community has worked together at the W3C on interoperable HTML5, we can now work together on an interoperable (or universal, to use the FTC privacy report’s term) way to help protect consumers’ privacy,” Hachamovitch said.

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Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Release Candidate (RC) Build 9.0.8080.16413 is available for download here.