Microsoft leaves privacy hole in browser, Google uses it

Microsoft left a big privacy loophole in its Internet Explorer browser and is now going after Google for driving a truck through it.

Microsoft said Google has been rolling over a privacy safeguard in its Internet Explorer 9 browser that helps users prevent advertisers from placing tracking files on their computers. Microsoft's allegations come a few days after Google took licks for appearing to circumvent privacy protections on Apple's Safari browser. "When the IE team heard that Google had bypassed user privacy settings on Safari, we asked ourselves a simple question: Is Google circumventing the privacy preferences of Internet Explorer users too?" Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's vice president of Internet Explorer, wrote in a blog post. "We’ve discovered the answer is yes."