I’ve learned something new this week about Internet security and privacy. Web bugs. Also known as web beacons. If you already know about them, you’re wondering what rock I’ve been living under. If you don’t know about them, listen up.
Web bugs are tiny, transparent 1 × 1 pixel objects that advertisers or other snoopy corporate entities embed on web pages or in emails to track your browsing activities, preferences, etc. Web bugs are the things that tell spammers you’ve opened their email, that indeed there is someone using that address who apparently has some interest in what the email is pitching. The companies that gather this information share it with or sell it to other companies, and all sorts of information about you goes flying around the Internet without your permission or knowledge.
Facebook lost a lawsuit last year for using web bugs, and supposedly has stopped using them. But just about everyone else out there does, it seems. Blizzard Entertainment caused a big uproar just last month with a deal involving sharing their users’ real names with Facebook. (Why does Facebook seem to turn up every time I read anything about Internet privacy?) I have better things to do with my time than examine the source code of every email I receive and every web page I land on, looking for bugs, and besides, the damage has already been done.
Fortunately, Firefox offers an add-on called Ghostery, a nifty little app that blocks web bugs. Better yet, it tells you which ones are lurking on each page. If you enable it, a little list of crossed-out bug sources pops up whenever you land on a bugged page. (Even WordPress stats work off a bug, it seems; if Ghostery messes that up, I can whitelist WP.) It’s very satisfying to see those names with lines through them, and know you’ve struck another tiny blow for personal privacy.
Isn’t the WordPress bug the smiley in all of the templates?
Yes, it’s part of the process. As much as I love and respect the WP guys, it’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t attempt to mine their huge customer base for information … or let someone else do it. On this page, for example, the report tells me there are bugs from Comscore Beacon, Quantcast, and WordPress stats. I’m still trying to determine whether my blocking the WordPress bug means my visit to someone’s blog won’t be registered, and vice versa. I love my stats, so for now I think I’ll whitelist it.
As an old anal retentive ex-programmer, I’ve noticed those single pixel images in a pages source code before and never gave it much thought because transparent images are often used as a text positioning tool. Boy was I dumb. Since installing Ghostery, it seems as if every page I browse to contains one of these sneaky little gems. Thanks for the heads-up. Is there a way you can tell if my visit to PiedType today wasn’t recorded in your stats? If so, I’ll white list it. Normally I’d assume that cookies will still provide your statistical data, but maybe not any more.
I credit my son for telling me about web bugs and Ghostery. And no, I can’t tell if WP recorded your visit specifically. The WP stats don’t give us IPs, which is the only way I could tell, assuming I knew your IP. I also use SiteMeter (click icon in bottom left corner of page). I added that so I could, just for fun, see where visitors are coming from — which states, countries, etc. It’s a freebie, so doesn’t show me all the info it gathers. Feel free to browse those stats.