Steve wrote: > I have recently learned that yahoo is now using ( or admitting to > using ) "web beacons". > > I am told that "web beacons" are 0 pixel gifs that are made to act as > tags tracking where users who visit certain yahoo site or who recieve > email that passes through yahoo.
These are usually called "web bugs" and are used since a longer time on the web already. On the web, they are generally not a bigger problem, because they don't give out more information that the web server gets anyways. Attaching them to third-party mail is quite offensive. Do you have a reference, where Yahoo's practices are described? > I think I read that beonex uses something called "simple html". > > Does reading email in the beonex email client protect one from web > beacons? Yes, the Simple HTML mode is designed to resist attacks like that. It disables all (external) images for that reason. > Does the browser have any protection against web beacons? By default, it doesn't transmit cookies with these web bugs. It will load them, but I don't consider that a significant threat.
