Browsers to defend privacy where feds won't

So seeing the browser developers leap ahead with their own solutions should be great, for a given value of "great."

If you could add a feature an eliminate a big problem, you'd have to go to the relic museum at a good university to even see a virus or trojan.

Do not track lists or features make it harder to stick a flashing "Sucker!" sign on a Web user as he or she drifts past some marketing ambush, but it doesn't keep anyone from actually being tracked. There are plenty of ways to do it without planting cookies in a browser cache.

How about built-in VPN clients connecting to free, public-access proxy servers to stop tracking and eavesdropping and even the annoying "I know your IP and what town you're in" teases at privacy product sites.

And how about alterations in consumer-protection regulations that back up that priority to protect privacy and maybe, dare we dream, some enforcement?

That would show everyone really was on the same page and wanted to do more than just make announcements. No matter how well timed they are.

Kevin Fogarty writes about enterprise IT for ITworld. Follow him on Twitter @KevinFogarty.