News

The forthcoming Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 beta (August ?) will
be the first browser to support new privacy standard called Platform
Privacy Preferences, or P3P. (not to be confused with P2P,
peer-to-peer networking)

P3P is emerging as industry standard providing a simple, automated way
for users to gain more control over the use of personal information on
Web sites they visit. At its most basic level, P3P is a standardized
set of multiple-choice questions, covering all the major aspects of a
Web site's privacy policies.  P3P enabled browsers, like the
forthcoming IE 6 can "read" this snapshot automatically and compare it
to the consumer's own set of privacy preferences. See
http://www.w3.org/P3P/ for P3P spec.

What happens if ad serving firms aren't ready to support P3P features
of IE 6?

ZD Anchordesk reports that they won't be able to leave you with the
cookie that allows them, based on the data therein, to target ads at
you. The P3P-compliant IE 6 will force ad companies to cope with other
privacy safeguards as well. It'll force them to post privacy policies
that can be read by the browser. And it'll allow you to configure your
browser to control how much information you want to disclose about
your online behavior.

See http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5092754,00.html
story by Stefanie Olsen.