Web bugs are an invisible GIF image that resides on a web page or in emails.
The purpose is to inform a third party site that you have visited this site.
This third party can see your IP address, the URL of the page you went to and
even your operating system and brand of computer. Web bugs can also be planted
in emails. Webbugs can invade your computer and send personal information to
the third party site.
This is a huge invasion of the public's privacy and one that should be
addressed immediately and globally. Microsoft has addressed the issue by
including an option in your privacy setting in Internet Explorer. You can set
your privacy settings to block first and third party cookies that use your
personalized information without your consent. However these controls will not
detect all webbugs. Programs like Ad-Aware, Bugnoisis and Spybot can help you
identify the webbugs that Internet Explorer misses.
The sites I used to research this topic are:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A6818-2001Mar14¬Found=true
http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/623
Frances Halliday
hallidaf@xxxxxxxxx
From what we get, we can make a living;
what we give, however, makes a life.
Arthur Ashe
American Tennis Player, Activist
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