Microsoft has filed for a new patent which may end up saving some marriages. Their new patent innocently named “AUTOMATION OF BROWSING MODE SWITCHING” would automatically make sure your browsing of “questionable” sites leaves no trace on your PC.

As the inventor notes:

Some websites, however, include content that a user may not want associated with the user’s identity or with their device. Thus, many web browsers include a “private mode” that enables a user to view a website while minimizing data that is retained that can be used to indicate that the user visited the website. Typical private mode implementations, however, require a user to proactively initiate the private mode in a browser before visiting a website which is to be scrubbed from a device. According to implementations for automation of browsing mode switching described herein, techniques are described for automatically switching between different browsing modes, such as switching between a normal browsing mode and a private browsing mode.

Somewhat questionably, Edge may determine a website needs to be hidden by keeping a list of adult websites on your PC, or by querying a cloud service. Microsoft also notes however that social media or medical information websites may need equal treatment.

As usual, we do not know if this feature will ever make it to a product, but I suspect we would see Edge gain at least a few percentage points if they do implement it.

See the full patent here.