It’s Microsoft vs. Google in a Web-Tracking Battle

Wall Street Journal: Just days after allegations emerged that Google was circumventing privacy measures in Apple’s Safari browser, Microsoft has also accused Google of gaming Internet Explorer in order to track users. In a blog post, Microsoft claims its search rival is “bypassing user privacy settings,” but experts say the situation is a little more nuanced.

The disagreement between the two companies centers around a technology called the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P). Internet Explorer supports P3P, which blocks websites that don’t have a privacy policy or that use tracking cookies. Several companies, including Facebook and Google, don’t support the P3P standard. Google has a P3P policy which simply says, “This is not a P3P policy!” Those who side with Microsoft say that’s a runaround; those who side with Google say it’s a disagreement about standards.