Web bugs, according to some experts, are infesting the Internet. One view is that congressional action is needed to stamp them out. Another view is they are as beneficial as butterflies, bringing us true happiness in our online existence. Let me dissect these critters for you, so you can decide if they are pests.

Web bugs aren't an Internet feature gone wrong, but instead, a secret profiling technique. They're a way of "bugging" your browser and sending information about you (without your knowledge) to someone (usually a marketing firm). This information may include not only who you are, but also where your ISP is, what you click on, and how long you spend at a certain page.

The marketers using this data claim that, thanks to these bugs and cookies, advertising and news shown to you (assuming there's a difference after the AOL/Time-Warner merger) can be better targeted, showing you only the content that interests you.

Computer security and personal privacy advocates scoff at this notion. It's surveillance, pure and simple, they say, and it should be stopped.

Bug Bestiary

Richard M. Smith coined the name "Web bugs" because he says they are like hidden microphones planted in a Web page. Here's how they work: A tiny graphic on a page, probably one pixel by one pixel, is coded to register any information it can get from your browser, such as when you signed on, what link sent you there, and what browser you're using. The information is sent to, say, a Web marketer-cum-profiler, who may combine it with data gleaned from other sources--like a credit agency. The bug also places a cookie on your hard drive.

The reason the graphic is so small, of course, is so you won't see it. (To find a bug, you'd have to know what to look for in the page's source HTML code or check your cookies file.) But a bug can just as easily be hidden in a graphic you do see, such as a banner ad. Bugs can also be hidden in HTML e-mail or HTML Usenet newsgroup postings and can tell the sender if the mail was opened, and if it was sent on to anyone. According to Smith, you can find Web bugs at Quicken, FedEx, Oil of Olay, and other sites.

Does the marketing industry really care? At a November 1999 workshop on consumer profiling held by the Federal Trade Commission, even the Direct Marketing Association said that "notice and choice [to consumers] should be provided by both the publisher and the third-party ad servers." But the DMA also begged the FTC to let marketers regulate themselves. DoubleClick claims on its privacy page (www.doubleclick.com/company_info/about_doubleclick/privacy/) that you can't be personally identified. But given recent lawsuits accusing DoubleClick of developing "sophisticated and highly intrusive means of collecting and cross-referencing private personal information without the knowing consent of Internet users," you might be skeptical.

What To Do

If you believe profiling is a public service and you don't mind marketers watching your every online move, relax. But if bugs bug you, get informed.

Check Richard M. Smith's site at www.tiac.net/users/smiths/ to get the scoop on Web bugs and other online trickery, tips, and tools.

What's News at the Junkbusters site (www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/new.html) has late-breaking information on this and related issues.

The Federal Trade Commission's Online Privacy Initiatives page at www.ftc.gov/privacy/index.html lists news about committee meetings, workshops, and other actions concerning consumer privacy.

In January, the FTC appointed some 40 people to an Online Privacy Committee (www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/01/asrev.htm) and assigned them to meet February 4, February 25, March 31, and April 28. The committee must come up with a fair information practices plan covering online security and information gathering by marketers. Check the FTC site regularly for updates on the committee's work.

More important, take action. Junkbusters suggests:

Install blocking software, such as Internet Junkbuster 2.0.2, which stops cookies and other attempts to glean info from your computer. Go to www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/ijb.html#top_of_page.

Write your state and federal representatives and ask them to support strong privacy protections. Go to thomas.loc.gov and search the Senate and House directories for names and addresses; or search Yahoo for info on your state legislature.

Protest profiling conducted by DoubleClick and others by sending them a letter. A sample is at www.junkbusters.com/cgi-bin/optout?from=eg&to=abacus.

If you discover a site is providing names and addresses to a marketer, let Junkbusters know at www.junkbusters.com/cgi-bin/gp?pg=new&pr=can. They'll inform other visitors and perhaps update their Junkbuster program.

Tweak your browser. To avoid being bugged, delete your cookies file (search all your drives for "cookies.txt"), and then tell your browser to stop accepting cookies. In Navigator, go to Edit&3149;Preference•Advanced. Click Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server and you'll stop Oil of Olay from telling DoubleClick about you. Click Disable cookies and no cookies will be saved on your disk. But this option may make it difficult for you to visit some password-protected sites.

In Internet Explorer, select Tools•Internet Options•Security, click the Custom Level button, and scroll down to the section on cookies. Your only choices are Disable, Enable, and Prompt for "Allow cookies that are stored on your computer" and "Allow per-session cookies (not stored)." You can elect to let only Trusted sites (which you specify) save cookies to your system.

Opt Me Out!

Marketers have to make a living. The Internet has gone commercial. There's nothing we can do to change these two facts. I accept that some information about me is going to be collected.

But it's one thing to willingly provide my name and address to a sweepstakes site, and quite another if the information is gathered by a bug I don't know about, sent on to someone I don't know, and used in ways I might not like. And to top it off, they don't even give me a piece of the action.

Marketing companies shouldn't be able to make a profit with what belongs to me, unless I give them my permission. All users need to stay informed about this issue and insist that we have complete control over who knows what about us.

© 2000 Elizabeth Powell Crowe. All rights reserved.

An author, online specialist, and contributing editor, Elizabeth Crowe also writes the Net Surfer column for Computer Currents.