Microsoft has recently introduced the world to InPrivateBrowsing, or privacy mode, which is the latest and greatest feature of IE8. According to numerous reports, including PCAdvisor, private mode is not very private at all. The information can easily be recovered and the privacy features are mostly cosmetic, giving you the false sense of security that you are protecting and securing your browsing habits. The main goal of InPrivateBrowsing is to prevent other users [of the same PC] from being able to access web surfing information.
InPrivateBrowsing was created by Microsoft to protect a user's Internet privacy by deleting browser history and other data that is stored by IE during a web surfing session. The dubbed, "Porn Mode," hides browser history from nosy people trying to spy on your web history. Forensic experts were able to easily retrieve all the information that IE was expected to keep protected. The main feature of InPrivateBrowsing is that it does not allow cookies to be stored. Cookies are bits of text and data that are stored on your computer so that websites can easily access your information. Without cookies, login details and other sensitive information remains secure. Along with the disabling of cookies, the browser doesn't allow history to be stored in the Windows registry, which is another way information can be found on your PC.
The major flaw of InPrivateBrowsing lies with cache files. These files are stored on your computer so that the websites you visit will load faster. The major flaw of InPrivateBrowsing is that it does not delete, or even disable, the Internet cache files. A user can manually delete these files, but they are still easily accessible with forensic tools. Users can always delete their cookies, cache, and temporary Internet files, but why would someone want to do that? For example, if I am searching the Internet for an engagement ring I could use privacy mode to make sure no traces of the searches are left online. That would be much more convenient than manually deleting everything. Not only would it be convenient, but it would look a lot less suspicious than having to delete all traces of my surfing. Both privacy mode and manual deletion solve the same problems, but the latter definitely looks fishy.
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