Microsoft announced last Thursday that IE 5.5 will get a patch that increases user control over cookies, in response to privacy and security concerns. A public beta of the new features will be available in a week or so. Good stuff, though Microsoft never does anything that isn't in their own best interest:

... Ed Black, president of the Washington-based Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), criticized Microsoft's move to tighten cookie controls aimed at third-party advertisers.

"This looks very much like another effort by Microsoft to utilize its monopoly power in the Internet browser market to establish dominance in an adjacent market -- namely, the market for personal data and information," Black said in a prepared statement. The CCIA supports efforts to protect privacy but doesn't believe cookie-generated data "should be available without restriction to some [companies] while requiring consumers to 'opt in' to providing information to everyone else," he added.

The original announcement says the patch will be available "within four weeks".