I've just noticed that Internet Explorer 8 is tracking me.

If I click the drop down menu at the end of the address bar it shows not all... but some of the computer's browsing history.

If I delete browsing history... the same stuff is still there.

Does anyone know why this is or how to make the stuff go away?

I'm not desperate to erase some dodgey site I've been on. It's the principle of the thing. Why is deleting browser history in Internet Explorer options not clearing this stuff?

Any clues?

Cheers

Az

Ccleaner?

"Careful...they got spies all over."

~ No-Bark Noonan

Switch to Chrome?

Hahaha, Internet Explorer

Yeah, why are you using IE?

That may be a list of your most-visited bookmarks?

Google Chrome is your friend...trust me.

Of course IE is tracking you, it's full of Windows.

Get Chrome/Firefox yadda yadda...

I take it that you are telling it to delete the history, cache, and cookies?

Chrome is faster, and Firefox is more versatile. Take your pick.

IE9 is pretty good too but I prefer firefox

If the OP is worried about tracking why is everyone suggesting Chrome? I would say go with Firefox with some privacy addons and use Tor if you are worrying about tracking but smart browsing is better yet.

Sure there's Chrome, Firefox even Safari but Internet Explorer has always been fine for me and because it's designed by MS it works fine with Windows and the rest.

It's always worked fine.

Why should it not work fine now?

Someone suggested "Bookmarks"?

Maybe it's that. How would I access and clear bookmarks if that's the case?

Cheers

Az

Most people here probably aren't much help due to most of them having no idea how IE actually works, myself included. I've been using Firefox since I got my first computer.

If you want to stick to IE upgrade to IE9, it is a lot faster (probably nearly as fast as chrome and faster than Firefox)

Bookmarks are known as favorites in Internet Explorer, you wouldn't want to delete those. It can also be related to auto-fill, which you may not be deleting

IE8 is an outdated browser that does not support modern Internet Standards, has serious compatibility issues, as well as having a known javascript bug causing it to be significantly slower than either Internet Explorer 7 or 9. If you insist on using Internet Explorer, you NEED to upgrade to IE9, though my personal recommendation is to use an alternative browser. If you are stuck on Windows XP, you really do need to ditch Internet Explorer because of the above reasons (IE9 is not available on XP). As mentioned, Firefox provides significantly enhanced privacy options (such as the Do Not Track header to keep sites from tracking you, as well as privacy addons such as https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/betterprivacy/ and https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/ -- to which there is no Internet Explorer alternative)


IE9 is still the slowest of the bunch. That wasn't the case when it first came out, but it is now. That said, the difference between the modern versions of all the major browsers is negligible at best given a clean (no addons) condition. IE9x64, though, is horribly slow (still has a javascript bug).

Thanks for blowing me out the water

At the end of your browser (where you would physically type a web address) there is the magnifying glass to tell it to search, then a drop down arrow.

This is where selective history data was being stored and despite multiple history deletions it was still there... even after deleting IE 8 and upgrading to IE 9.

However the key to the solution was in the problem. Hover over the drop down menu and it says "Show Address Bar Autocomplete".

Sure enough, in Internet Options, the autocomplete settings are set to display in History.

Removing the tick for the History box results in Autocomplete being disabled for history.

Problem now fixed.

Az

[img]http://image.chromefans.org/i100/id123/ie.jpg[/img]

Only you Evilfish

Too true, too true.

Though really, if you are worried at all about privacy, you're using the wrong browser. Various websites are tracking you as you browse the web, and in IE there is very little (in many cases: nothing) you can do about it.

Not to mention that your browser tracking you is really only a privacy problem if you're hit with malware of some sort, or are sharing your login with someone else (which you should never do in any case). In other words: So what if there's something on your hard drive that lists where you've been? In a properly configured and maintained system, only you will have access to that information anyway .

If you're worried about tracking you should, as DEFRON mentions, be far more concerned by the external tracking that is prevalent throughout the web. Most of it is done merely to allow targeted advertising (giving you ads based on what you seem interested in), but there are a few things out there with less legitimate intentions. And you may not be willing to let even Google watch close to everything you do.