SPUG: Web Bugs

[Daryn Nakhuda]

On Mon, 20 Aug 2001, Colin Meyer wrote:

> Imagine an html attachment to an email that somewhere includes the image:
> 
> <img src="http://emailtracker.com/images/invisi.gif?uid=20010820202737.A78384@beaver.net" />
> 
> Anyone who views the html attachment with a browser that automatically
> fetches all images will have inadvertently logged the fact (in
> emailtracker.com's web access.log) that this html attachment has been
> read from their particular ip address.

I forgot to mention an even more evil trick: with some javascript loading
that image, you can get a lot more detail than just a "hit". For example,
I could tell how long you looked at the page, what page elements you
rolled over, and more.. 




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