Managing certificates in Internet Explorer

Originally posted 05/05/2011 on lubbockonline.com

Today we're going to look how to add and remove security certificates from Internet Explorer 8.

1. Click on "Tools" from the Internet Explorer browser menu. Next, select "Internet Options."

2. Go to the "Content" tab and under the Certificates section, click on the "Certificates" button.

3. Select "All" from the drop-down box located next to "Intended Purpose." Use the scroll bar beside the last tab on the right to find the certificates listed by source type. Highlight the certificate you would like to delete. Next, click on "Remove."

4. Click "Yes" at the prompt to continue the removal process.

If you want to add a certificate, click "import" instead of export and go through the dialog, select the certificate and click ok.

Private browsing really isn't

Originally published 3/29/11 on lubbockonline.com/glasshouses

Do you use the private browsing feature of your browser? Though they may have different names for it, the major browsers all have some type of private browsing available. All of them do pretty much the same thing. From the description of Private Browsing in Opera:

Private tabs

To browse without leaving any trace of the websites you visit, you can use a private tab. This is especially useful if you are using someone else's computer, or planning a surprise that you want to keep secret. When you close a private tab, the following data related to the tab is deleted:

• browsing history
• items in cache
• cookies
• logins

It looks really good - but your browser isn't the only thing gathering info about you on the web. The explanation given on Google Chrome's private browsing page is pretty clear:

Browsing in incognito mode only keeps Google Chrome from storing information about the websites you've visited. The websites you visit may still have records of your visit. Any files saved to your computer will still remain on your computer.

For example, if you sign into your Google Account on http://www.google.com while in incognito mode, your subsequent web searches are recorded in your Google Web History. In this case, to prevent your searches from being stored in your Google Account, you'll need to pause your Google Web History tracking.

If you're using private browsing it will protect you from people finding out what you're doing online by checking your browser, but it won't protect you from the data and logs kept by the your ISP, the ous servers your data travels through, and of course, the sites you visit. Private browsing isn't really private except on the computer the browser is running on.

IE9 and Firefox will have "Do not track" features

The upcoming versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox will include "Do Not Track" capabilities, but the way they do it is quite different. IE uses blacklisting, which will work, at least for a while. Firefox is implementing a header that will be sent to sites to tell them you don't want to be tracked. Which will work as long as enough sites agree to support the header.

The Mozilla blog gives a little more information on the "Do not track" header and links to another blog with more technical information on the "Do not track" header.

Ed Bott of ZDNet.com gives a very good explanation of how "Do not track" works in IE. It is part of a series of blags on internet tracking.

"Do Not Track" needs to be done. But I am concerned that these measures are being done without regard to the far reaching effects of blocking tracking and ads. Much of the free information on the internet is paid for by gathering information on the people who visit websites. Cutting off that revenue stream cold turkey could completely change the face of the internet, causing sites to go out of business or change business models radically. Privacy and control over information about us is extremely important, but we have to be careful we don't shoot ourselves in the foot trying to fix our problem.