Microsoft Corp. today spelled out new privacy tools in Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) that some have dubbed "porn mode" in a nod to the most-obvious use of a browser privacy mode. ...

Slated to appear in IE8 Beta 2, which Microsoft's former chairman, Bill Gates, promised will release this month, the three new tools share the "InPrivate" name, which Microsoft filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office several weeks ago.

The most intriguing tool, and the one that has prompted the "porn mode" label, was dubbed "InPrivate Browsing" by Microsoft. When enabled, IE8 will not save browsing and searching history, cookies, form data and passwords; it also will automatically clear the browser cache at the end of the session.

According to the Times article, Mozilla also is working on browser features designed to satisfy pornmongers privacy advocates. But at least one Mozilla spokesman urges us to get our minds out of the gutter:

"To lock everyone into a 'porn bucket' makes people who have alternate privacy needs think that they're doing something wrong," said [Mike] Beltzner.

Two things:

1) There's a "porn bucket"?

2) Beltzner's quote doesn't even make sense. Why would someone using the privacy features for non-porn reasons feel as if "they're doing something wrong" because other people are in the porn bucket?

Whatever your reasons for wanting more browsing privacy, you may not have to wait long. Microsoft intends to unveil a beta of IE8 this month, with the final product slated to roll out by year's end. Mozilla hasn't committed to a release schedule yet, but since the privacy features were slated to be included in Firefox 3.0, which was released in June, it should be sooner than later.