On-line privacy thereat - the 'WEB BUG"

[MadMatt]

Check it out: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2247960.html

Looks like Double Click and the other on-line advertising companies will stop at nothing to gather specific personal information!

Any programers out there who could design a program to block these 1-pixel gifs?

[Gomer]

Where do these bugs hide out? Temporary Internet? Although I don't like the idea of being tracked (and take steps to avoid it) I think it is pretty neat the innovation that is being used. What's next?

[socalgal]

Thanks for that link, MadMatt, there's some good info contained there.

Didn't read the entire article yet, but watch out for Netscape's Smart Downloader and Download Demon, too. Spyware. You can read more about it at grc.com.

I subscribe to Steve Gibson's newsletter which can be informative (tho a little behind sometimes, newswise, ). You can get OptOut to check for spyware and it's an interesting and informative site. Pardon if you already know this

More info on web bugs, other privacy stuff: http://www.tiac.net/users/smiths/privacy/index.htm

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 07-14-2000).]

[howste]

I heard about spammers using these things last year. They use it to verify the validity of addresses on their list. If you open their mail, they instantly know your email address is valid because your email program sends a request for the one-pixel gif to their server. That's why I usually delete spam from my inbox without ever opening it, and rarely use the preview pane.

Steve

[BFlurie]

Go into your "cookies" folder & delete any cookies from: *.flycast.com; *.adsmart.net; *.doubleclick.net; *.linkexchange.com; *.preferences.com; *.focalink.com; *.imgis.com; *.link4ads.com; *.smartclicks.com; *.netburstnet.com; *.eads.com; *.247med ia .com; *.akamai*.net; *.avenuea.com; *.blink.com; *.come.to; *.datman.com; msimg.com; *.bfast.com; *.click2net.com; *.advertising.com; *.link-box.com; *.go2net.com; *.accendo.com; *.covad.com; *.pathfinder.com; *.bluestreak.com; *.measureup.com; *.vnunet.com; *.yimg.com; *.easycounter.com; *.targetnet.com
& any other "ad" servers -- you don't need 'em, & it might disable what's being described here.

Edited to preserve page formatting. -socalgal

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 07-14-2000).]

Dave, what you say is true -- but you can write a .bat file & place a shortcut to it on your desktop aimed at the cookies folder to delete these cookies at will. Granted, it's not the best solution. Thanks for the Opt-out links......If someone wants to use the "Opt-Out" feature, then DON'T delete the cookies from that particular site!

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 07-14-2000).]

[socalgal]

That's right, howste.

Since I prefer to use the preview pane in OE5, I set my options to delay opening of email for 15 seconds - for the time to delete and block sender before it opens.

Thanks for that list, BFlurie!

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 07-14-2000).]

[Dave_H]

If you deleate those cookies, you will just get a new one the next time you visit a site with an ad from one of those companies.
What you need to do is get an "opt out" cookie from those sites in order to block any website tracking. Of course this would be unrealistic because there are so many different ad servers doing this, on my system I found that the 2 big offenders are DoubleClick, and Engage Media.

Here is where you can Opt Out for DoubleClick add tracking. look halfway down the page where it says "OptOut click here"
DoubleClick
Here is for Engage Media, another low life company.
Engage Media

What I would really like to do is to save a file with all these opt out cookies, and all the "good" cookies I need (like for here). That way, everytime I dump all my cookies I could import all these back in, and start fresh.
Dave

[jad1097]

Thanks socalgal.


I seem to remember having a program once that would not allow certain cookies to be stored if you did not want them.

[This message has been edited by jad1097 (edited 07-14-2000).]

[alondra]

was told this is caused by a too long url??
should be a cure for this, darn annoying

[This message has been edited by alondra (edited 07-14-2000).]

[U-96]

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/For...ML/004253.html

How come I got no replies? Do I smell or something?

howste, it's me and you vs. the world...

U-96

PS that FAQ link still works

[SysOpt]

This is absolutely not new. I was using 1x1 pixel images years ago on SysOpt as part of an advertising software package. It wasn't used to "gather your personal data" or surfing habits. Rather, it was used to serve ads and keep the same ad from being shown to the same user multiple times.

I really don't know why everyone gets in such a snit over these types of things. They can't figure out who you are, where you live, who you are married to, how old you are, what your SS# is, what kind of car you drive, what your medical history is, etc., etc. All they can do is keep track of your surfing habits. For instance, if you visit CNN, and you like to browse the technology pages more than other pages, they might store a cookie with that data, and next time you visit CNN, they'll serve you ads for tech gadgets because that's what you're probably interested in.

[BFlurie]

SysOpt, I agree -- the reason I have that "list" is because I've given those sites an IP address of 127.0.0.1 in my HOSTS file to block their ads showing while browsing w/Internet Explorer. Just speeds up browsing.

[alondra]

sysopt. just curious. fella posted a note about having to scroll. I posted that was caused by long url. was taken care of. his post dissapeared. now mine sounds meaningless but cant delete it ????

[socalgal]

alondra, jad just edited his message after I added spaces between the list of files.

You can edit any of your own posts by hitting the on your post.

[MadMatt]

Here are some more links:

Web Bug FAQ
Washington Post article