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Web bugs are bad, m'kay?

March 18, 2002 - By 

There’s a web bug in this post. It was sent from Barnes and Noble to my husband. We decided to poison it. If you’re as annoyed by deceptive marketing as we are, feel free to put this bug in your journal, or anywhere you’d like:

<IMG SRC=”http://email.bn.com/cgi-bin6/flosensing?y=Fgh0Cch5S0Bzi1″>

Err… what’s a web bug??

Glad you asked! See the gobbledygook in the tag? The “Fgh0Cch5S0Bzi1” part? That means that when Rob opens that email “they” (in this case Barnes and Noble) know that he read it. They could also collect other information, such as the IP address of the computer that fetched the Web bug, the URL of the page that the Web bug is located on, the URL of the Web bug image, the time the Web bug was viewed, the type of browser that fetched the Web bug image, a previously set cookie value. Anything that the browser normally passes can be collected.

Here’s a good resource on web bugs. Highly recommended reading, if you have privacy concerns.

I’m sure you’ve gotten those silly chain emails, promising money or disney trips if you forward, ’cause the email is being tracked. Well, web bugs are the real way to track email.

One comment on “Web bugs are bad, m'kay?”

  1. Here’s my letter to B&N:

    I just received the latest Readers Advantage newsletter, and have one simple, basic question about it. WHY IS IT WEB BUGGED???? This is one of the ruder and more deceptive marketing tactics, and it has almost convinced me to cancel my membership with Reader’s Advantage and stop doing any shopping at Barnes & Noble (either online or offline).
    In a minor form of protest, your database is going to be poisoned. This bug has been posted in various portions of the internet, without being associated with the newsletter, along with notations that you perform the deplorable practice of web bugging. And I can now guarantee that any web bug I get sent by you will undergo the same treatment.

    I don’t know how much of an affect it will have, but one can try. I’m seriously sick and tired of companies that think they can gather information about me without my express permission. I don’t mind links being bugged (after all, I expressly clicked it), but images that load by default? I don’t think so bud.

    Reply

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