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Subject: Re: This site uses a "web bug"

Author: Sally Weltrop

Date: 13:55:17 11/25/01

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On November 25, 2001 at 09:38:10, Anthony Boynes wrote:

>On November 25, 2001 at 03:51:31, Andy Serpa wrote:
>
>>Hmmm...
>>
>>Thoughts:
>>
>>1) According to the definition offered at Bugnosis.org, the FIDE counter does
>>not consitute a web bug, because it is not invisible.  In fact, not only is it
>>not invisible, it is clearly an advertisment -- an invitation to check out
>>FIDE.com.
>>
>
>You didn't read the definition very closely.  It doesn't say that a web bug has
>to be invisible.
>
>>2) The counter has no particular "abilities" that enable it to do anything that
>>CCC couldn't do otherwise, and every page, every image, every banner ad on the
>>internet can do essentially the same thing -- although possibly not as easily.
>>In other words, the invisible / not invisible distinction is essentially
>>meaningless -- the bugnosis people just want to make it sound like something is
>>done to you against your will.
>>
>
>This is usually an automated process.  Do you really think that most web hosting
>sites have some poor guy manually looking over every entry in their logs?  There
>is plenty of software that will do this for them.
>
>
>>3) As an example, CCC could take all the information it knows about all of us:
>>Names, email addresses, logs of every time we log on and what posts we read --
>>they could make a file on each of us by analyzing the content of our posts to
>>determine our likes & dislikes, and sell all that to whoever would buy it.  The
>>question is: do you trust CCC not to do that?
>
>Steve may not be doing this personally but there is a reason that people give
>you "free counters".  You get a counter and they get information about who
>visits your site.  Do you think they just throw this information in the bit
>bucket after collect it?
>
>Good or bad, many people have not the slightest clue as to what information can
>be collected about them.  There have been several well known exploits which
>allowed people running web sites to read the contents of your hard drive and
>even pull information from cookies or data files on your machine.
>
>This may all be a trade-off but the stakes can be high if you not prepared, or
>take a non-chalant attitude towards privacy.

yeap ... thanks again Anthony. my sentiments exactly.



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