CastleCops® - Finding bugs in the cookies

By Thomas J. Fitzgerald
June 26 2003

Last month Microsoft retooled its Hotmail service, adding a feature that allows users to block web bugs placed inside email messages. A similar option exists in the most recent version of Microsoft's widely used Outlook Express email program, and the company says the next release of its other email program, Outlook, will block the tracking mechanisms by default.

"For consumers concerned about being tracked, we are giving them the flexibility to turn this new feature on or off," says J.C. Cannon, a strategist in the corporate privacy group at Microsoft.

Web bugs, which online marketers refer to as pixel tags, are used by creators of web pages and advertisers to keep track of visits to a page. Often, the images are so tiny that they are invisible.

Creating a web bug is a relatively simple technique that takes advantage of log entries generated automatically when a viewer calls up an image on a website. The site's logs capture the visiting computer's internet protocol address, the web page viewed and the time.

Embedding a web bug in an email message enables the sender, by means of the same logging technology, to capture information about the computer that received the message, including its IP address.

Marketing companies and spammers use such messages - often called HTML mail, for hypertext markup language, the web's lingua franca - to gather information about responses to the messages they send. HTML mail may also contain links to webpages that contain web bugs, enabling marketers to track those who click from the message to various websites.

Marketing analysis companies such as DoubleClick and WebSideStory use HTML mail to provide this kind of tracking service for their clients.

"It provides an understanding of the effectiveness of marketing campaigns," says Jay McCarthy, vice-president for product strategy and chief privacy officer at WebSideStory. "Clients can better target their marketing."

McCarthy says the email enhancements by Microsoft could hinder the marketers. Privacy advocates, however, welcome the changes, which would also block HTML ads and offensive images from unknown senders.

"Giving consumers the ability to block HTML images and web bugs from email is like adding windshield wipers to a car: a necessity that will make travelling - in this case on the internet - much more enjoyable," Stephen Keating, executive director of the Privacy Foundation, says. "It also removes a tool from the spammers' arsenal."

To use the new Hotmail feature, click on Options, then Mail Display Settings. Then choose "Remove images until messages are viewed". In Outlook Express, go to Tools, Options, Read, then select "Read all messages in Plain Text".

If you use an e-mail program that does not have an option to block HTML images, another tactic is to view your messages when your computer is offline.

With Outlook 2003, users will be able to use new junk-mail filtering features to restrict HTML in incoming messages. Content from external websites will be turned off by default, which means that if a user receives a message that includes a connection to a website, that connection will be blocked, says Microsoft spokeswoman Samantha McManus. In contrast, mail from inside a business's intranet or pictures sent inside email are not blocked, she says.

Web bugs have become more common among websites that monitor visitor traffic and tailor their pages to visitors' preferences.

Article source and more: SMH.com.au


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