How Private–or Secure–Is So-Called Private Browsing?
All the major browsers–Firefox, Internet Explorer 8, Safari, and even the new Google Chrome–now have or will soon have a major privacy feature. The name varies from browser to browser, but the basic intent is largely the same: While active, it masks your browsing trail from anyone who might later sit down at that PC and try to check the browser’s history, cookies, and other data. While these features should prove effective in that situation, they won’t disguise you from the sites you visit; sites will still be able to record your IP address and monitor the searches and other information you enter. And more important, the technology won’t make you any more or less safe from Web-based attacks that might surreptitiously attempt to infect your PC with malware when you view a page–the favored approach among money-minded digital crooks these days. So you’ll still need to be careful where you surf. Safari’s Private Browsing feature comes with its current 3.1.2 release version; for IE 8, yo
