ARTS & FARCES internet

Web bugs pose a threat to privacy that’s even more insidious than cookies. A web bug is a small graphic image—usually a single pixel—that is embedded within a web page or email message and used specifically to monitor the actions of the reader of the carrier material. The web bug is capable of carrying quite a bit of useful information back to its originator, including:

• The IP address of the computer that accessed the material containing the web bug
• The URL of the page on which the web bug is embedded
• The date and time that the material containing the web bug was accessed
• The type of browser used to access the material containing the web bug
• The operating system used to access the material containing the web bug
• Any previously set cookie value

Web bugs can be used for something as relatively innocuous as independently verifying the number of users that see a particular piece of information. Other uses are more nefarious. Consider that a web bug can be used in conjunction with a cookie and relational database to compile exceptionally detailed dossiers on individually identifiable Internet users.

Intuit (Quicken), Federal Express, and Microsoft all use web bugs. Since web bugs are not mentioned in any of these companies’ privacy policies, we have no way to know how this technology is being used.

Earlier this month, Richard Smith, Chief Technology Officer at the University of Denver’s Privacy Foundation, demonstrated that web bugs could also be used to surreptitiously track recipients of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents. In fact, most any web-enabled software program should be capable of embedding web bugs in its documents.