This Privacy Stuff is
Really Bugging Me!
by Mike Banks Valentine
There is a nasty little privacy parasite loose on
your computer. You get it by visiting web sites with
"bugs" on them. Typically served by ad tracking,
affiliate tracking and even email tracking companies
to measure the effectiveness of their ads, track their
visitors and find out when you open their email. Web
bugs are tiny, invisible 1 pixel by 1 pixel graphic
files that notify a third party web site when a page,
an ad or an email is viewed.
Now if you've joined an affiliate program through
any of the major affiliate tracking companies, you
have probably even put these bugs on your own pages
without knowing what you've done. They come in the
HTML code you are given to paste into your page by
Commission Junction or LinkShare or BeFree networks
and LinkExchange to track your visitors so you can be
paid your affiliate commissions.
You'll see on the link code something like this <img
src="http://service.bfast.com/bfast/serve?bfmid=
26375915&siteid=38461978&bfpage=ehi_home_page"
border="0" width="1" height="1"
NOSAVE >
This is actually the WebSite101 code for our affiliate
link to eHealthInsurance.com and is required by their
affiliate program. This is a "good" use of web
bugs to
track commission payments to affiliates. It allows the
host to track exactly what web page was visited by the
surfer and when so that affiliate links can be tracked
from their source.
The "bad" bugs are those used by ad servers to
track
which advertisements are viewed by surfers and combine
it with other information stored about that surfer at
other web sites. There are bugs included in HTML email
-- those messages that include graphics, fonts and page
color in the messages -- to see when the email was opened
and can even tell where on your hard drive that email
is stored, when it was viewed, how long it was open
and if the links are clicked on.
"Bad" bugs are used by nefarious sites to collect
information from your hard drive and pass it back to
their server without your knowledge. This is done in
combination with cookies to send information about your
surfing habits to third parties, also without your
knowledge. For more about cookies visit:
http://WebSite101.com/Privacy_issues.html#cookies
Some of these nasty little critters can even be used
from web pages or within your email to install
"executable bugs," which can install a file onto
your
hard drive to collect information whenever you are online.
For example, one such bug can scan a hard drive to send
information on every document that contains the word
"financial."
More on Web Bugs . . .
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5008849.html
Fortunately there is a new software available
for Windows users called
<a href="http://www.bugnosis.org/">Bugnosis</a>
which is provided as freeware by the
<a href="http://www.privacyfoundation.org/">
Privacy Foundation</a>.
The software is designed as a browser plug-in to notify
you when a page you visit is a security risk, or simply
if the page contains web
bugs. They are working on a
version that will notify you of bugs in your email.
Call the exterminator honey, we've got bugs in the PC!
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