As Microsoft puts the finishing touches on an upgrade to its popular browser, Internet advertising companies are racing to ensure that their ads and cookies are compatible with it. Internet Explorer 6, scheduled to be released in August, will be the first browser to support a new privacy standard called Platform Privacy Preferences, or P3P. With P3P, Web surfers can configure their browsers to automatically determine whether a Web site collects personally identifiable information, uses that information to create user profiles, or allows visitors to opt out of the data collection. Ad networks also must post privacy policies that can be read by the browser. Sites and ads that are not compliant with the standards being included in IE 6 may not be able to place cookies on PC users' hard drives.
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