You don't even have to view the mail if the gif is near/at the top and the user has something like Eudora's "message preview pane" set. (But then again, how many of the target demographics have even heard of Eudora ;-)
OTOH, for legit opt-in mail, the message preview pane can also give a false (too high) indication of how many messages were read. best, paul At 10:23 AM 1/13/03 -0800, you wrote: >Yep.. One of the ways that spammers, these days, collect info on valid email >addresses when using HTML email campaigns. You simply view the email, and >BAM.. they know your email address is good. > >Old news > > > >| -----Original Message----- >| From: Costas Piliotis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >| Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 10:04 AM >| To: CF-Talk >| Subject: RE: web beacons >| >| >| Oh yeah, and you can pass url parameters to that image as >| well... So let's say you send an email to employeeid 145. >| >| You can add a parameter the the src of the gif file in the >| html email you send him as such: >| >| <img src="http://www.myserver.com/image.cfm?id=145";> >| >| Then in the source... Of image.cfm, something like this >| appears: <cfcontent file="foo.gif" >| type="application/whatever"> <cfquery datasource="#application.ds#"> >| insert into someTable (employeeid, date) >| values (#val(url.id)#, getdate()) >| </cfquery> >| >| -----Original Message----- >| From: Costas Piliotis >| Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 10:00 AM >| To: CF-Talk >| Subject: RE: web beacons >| >| >| Easy. >| >| <cfcontent file="foo.gif" type="application/whatever"> >| <cfquery datasource="#application.ds#"> >| ...tracking query here... >| </cfquery> >| >| You include the image, and some server-side code to process >| it. Done it a few times... >| >| -----Original Message----- >| From: sebastian palmigiani [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >| Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 9:52 AM >| To: CF-Talk >| Subject: web beacons >| >| >| Yahoo is using something called web beacons. Can anyone >| simply explain how a single pixel gif is used as a web beacon. >| >http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/pixels/details.html > > >Sebastian > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
