posted on September 11, 2000 08:12:24 PM
That's right, and the bugs render virtually all measures that a user can take useless in protecting their privacy.
The agencies keep claiming that they are single purpose and innocuous, bu the agencies share and presumably sell nformation derived from their use.
There are ongoing attempts to curtail the use of bugs which are, so far, innefective.
It's why there are so many major corporate people who are saying things that essentially mean "You have no privacy, get used to it".
It's a part of participating on the web, and the only somewhat sure prevention is a permanent disconnect.
posted on September 11, 2000 08:29:03 PM
It reminds me of years ago when everyone was buying radar detectors only to find out that the same manufacturer made the radar detectors police used to bust the speeders...
Better and cheaper to slow down than beat the odds. One never knows who the enemy is..
posted on September 12, 2000 12:48:57 AMUsed unethically, a Web bug embedded in an email message could be used to synchronize a Web browser cookie to a particular email address. This trick allows a Web site to know the identity of people who return to the site—even if they've never revealed their personal details!
How jolly.
Want to get rid of Web bugs from the pages you view? Unfortunately, you can't. There is no easy way to distinguish Web bugs from legitimate "spacer" graphics used by Web page designers. You can, however, determine if a page is using Web bugs by using the "View Source" option of your browser and examining the "IMG" tags on the page. Web bugs typically are 1 pixel in size, and contain the URL of a server that differs from the one that served the page itself.
Great. Now all we need is cyber-pediculicide and a nit comb.
posted on September 12, 2000 02:30:17 PM
Hi smw. I'm sorry I took so long to answer you but just now got back to this thread. I already have userdata persistence disabled. Actually, I don't have too many options enabled in my Security Tools and I am able to surf just fine. I followed the recommendations for the IE browser settings at this site:
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/secbrow1.html
Thanks for the heads-up.
Blanche
[ edited by bhearsch on Sep 12, 2000 02:31 PM ]
