The statement, which due to its sheer stupidity took some time for us to verify as not being part of an elaborate April Fools Day joke, was made by the Vole's Internet Explorer product manager Pete LePage.
LePage's blog post on the firm's TechNet Edge website has since been removed, but not before it was reported by several sources.
LePage claimed that Google's Chrome browser, which has its search bar integrated with the URL address bar, sends back information to Google as you type into it. What he was describing is the search as you type feature found in many browsers. LePage continues by saying that because Internet Explorer 8, which of course has a long bloodline rich in infallible bulletproof security, separates the search and address bar, this is somehow more safer for the end user.
Somewhere in there LePage does have a tiny point, but Google's Chrome web browser does the same thing if you set the default search to, say, Bing. Although neither company is particularly stellar when it comes to privacy, we think that the majority of users would opt to send their search terms to Google rather than Microsoft.
Clearly not satisfied that mere text on screen was enough to prove his, ultimately invalid point, LePage decided to release a video which of course requires the completely non intrusive, standards compliant, open source plug-in Silverlight to view. Showing off Internet Exploder's InPrivate 'anonymous' browsing mode, he conveniently failed to mention Chrome's Incognito mode.
The whole sorry saga, aside from being completely embarrassing for Microsoft, only goes to show how desperate its people are not to, justifiably, lose market share to more capable browsers such as Chrome and Firefox. With personnel like LePage at the helm, it's little wonder why the Vole's browser market share is taking a dive.
Google, of course, might choose not to respond to these spurious claims of a lack of privacy, as just about anyone with any intelligence should be able to see through LePage's claims.