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How many sites use web bugs (single-pixel GIFs)?
I just learned that Weather.com is going to start using web bugs in the form of single-pixel GIFs to track their users. And that got me thinking: do other sites use web bugs too? And what is the risk of web bugs? Are they used specifically and only by the site to track user activity or can they be used maliciously?
2 Answers
- ChrisLv 75 years agoFavorite Answer
Whenever you visit a website, you're transmitting lots of information (ip address, browser, os, display resolution). However, somebody on the other site _cannot_ get your name, home address or email address from that.
The only noteworthy thing about a web bug is that while you're visiting website A, the 1x1 gif is loaded from server B. From a technical pov, this request is identical to the one for the web page you're visiting.
In other words, while you willingly share the aforementioned info with seemingly-harmlessblog.com, you're also unwittingly sharing it with annoying-ad-network.com
That's it.
Every ad on a website works exactly the same way, so the only thing malicious is that the website owner might trick you into thinking they aren't embedding third party resources in their website (because as opposed to huge ads, you can't see the web bugs).
The information is really only good for statistical analysis anyway.
- JimLv 65 years ago
Sandbox your web browsers, stop worrying.
There are sooooo many tracking things that infect a computer.
Sandboxie stops everything period, including viruses, trojans, Zombie Cookies etc etc.
Surf like a pro, not an amateur.
