Had you have enough of “boring Internet Explorer look”? You might have to search for some extensions, shells etc...But beware, some of them are offering good looking interface and lot of functions, some more privacy and some a lot of adverts. But what is real and what is fake?

As the BBC reported on September, 1st another MSIE shell called Browzar was introduced in the web, offering private surfing. The official website states, that "you can search and surf the web without leaving any visible trace on the computer you are using".

The shell of Browzar has been designed to delete automatically all private information about your surfing, then it does not record visited websites, it does not store cached pages, moreover auto-completing is disabled and cookies are deleted at end of each  session. Besides,  it cannot  even patch flaws in IE - patch it yourself, we would like to say, this is finally something for user privacy.

But we will not. Why?

The reason is that it uses by default Browzar search engine, which feeds search results with sponsored adverts. This is nothing new, all search engines do it.

 As Browzar website states: "Our search engine has been developed with our search engine partner and we are constantly looking to add enhancements based on your feedback."...

According to what the BBC reported, bloggers and experts branded Browzar as "adware", because when searching directs web searches , users are linked to online adverts. Paid-of links are included in search results, even if they are described as “sponsored”. The man standing behind Browzar, Ajaz Ahmed, answered back  that users are free to use the search engine they prefer. "We are looking to enhance our search and change the way it is presented, based on feedback," Ahmed said. What can be here enhanced?

Ok, we will not use inbuilt search, but what about other features?
Scott Hanselman in his Computer Zen blog describes his deeper diggin'. The results are quite interesting: according to what he reports,  Browzar  uses to delete all the gifs loaded with the page from the “Temporary Internet Files”  folder
(as Hanselman wrote: "Browzar deletes gifs as soon as it sees them"), and once it has deleted  the existing cookies, it does not delete the page itself. "So, Browzar, at least this version, is totally not doing what it says it does. That's a bummer. Maybe next version," states finaly Hanselman.

Another view about Browzar privacy policy appears on  Wb3.0log.
In the Blog it is reported   Browzar’s search Engine is Overture , which is well known through PayPerClick, and it suggest an interesting perspective about “privacy”: Browzer addon sends not only HTTP_USER_AGENT information, but all kinds of computer info, it apparently supports ActiveX (which cannot be disabled, because context menu is hidden and cannot be accessed), it supports cookies...and so on.

The opinion of the user "Wahid" who posted his opinion about Browzar on Web3.0log embodies the common feeling of many Internet users who had to do with this software:


BrowzarTM does not completely protect your privacy.
BrowzarTM is in fact a browser that makes use of the Internet Explorer core.
BrowzarTM inherits of any problems Internet Explorer might have.
BrowzarTM permits access to anyone that wants to restore your history,
cookies or temporary internet files from the dark corners of your
disk.
BrowzarTM doesn't take care of securely deleting history, cookies or
any other temporary internet files in order to be unable to recover
them.
BrowzarTM doesn't take care of making the file names unsignificant.
BrowzarTM is not ready to be deployed on public computers.

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Browzar is not a borwser Written by Vympel on 2006-09-09 23:52:26

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