OT: Yahoo web beacons

  • Thread starter Thread starter Canetoad
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Canetoad

Message below posted to Melb.general may be of interest to some.
****

Yahoo is now using something called "Web Beacons" to track Yahoo Group
users around the net and see what you're doing and where you are going
similar to cookies. Yahoo is recording every website and every group you
visit. Take a look at their updated privacy statement:
http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy

About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will see a
link that says web beacons. Click on the phrase web beacons. That will
bring you to a paragraph entitled "Outside the Yahoo Network."

In this section you'll see a little "click here to opt out" link that
will let you "opt-out" of their new method of snooping.

Once you have clicked that link, you are exempted. Notice the "Success"
message on the top of the next page. Be careful because on that page
there is a "Cancel Opt-out" button that, if clicked, will *undo*! * the
opt-out.
Feel free to forward this to other groups.
 
http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy

About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will
see a link that says web beacons. Click on the phrase web beacons.
That will bring you to a paragraph entitled "Outside the Yahoo
Network."

In this section you'll see a little "click here to opt out" link
that will let you "opt-out" of their new method of snooping.
Click to expand...

Yahoo!'s use of web bugs is not new. The earliest version of
their privacy page at archive.org is from Feb 2001, and it also
describes their use of web 'beacons'.

<http://web.archive.org/web/20010204005500/http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy>

Opting out only lasts as long as you keep your Yahoo! cookie; if
you clear the cookie, you effectively opt back in. IMO a better
way to avoid their "Outside the Yahoo Network" tracking is to
refuse all third-party cookies.
 
Message below posted to Melb.general may be of interest to
some. ****

Yahoo is now using something called "Web Beacons" to track
Yahoo Group users around the net and see what you're doing
and where you are going similar to cookies. Yahoo is
recording every website and every group you visit. Take a
look at their updated privacy statement:
http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy

About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies,
you will see a link that says web beacons. Click on the
phrase web beacons. That will bring you to a paragraph
entitled "Outside the Yahoo Network."

In this section you'll see a little "click here to opt out"
link that will let you "opt-out" of their new method of
snooping.

Once you have clicked that link, you are exempted. Notice
the "Success" message on the top of the next page. Be
careful because on that page there is a "Cancel Opt-out"
button that, if clicked, will *undo*! * the opt-out.
Feel free to forward this to other groups.
Click to expand...

Or install Proxomitron and never worry about Web Beacons/Bugs.
;)

J
 
And how does Proxomitron get rid of them? It can't get rid
of all.
Click to expand...

Your right -- "out of the box," it will not. However, one can
add a simple filter to remove them (all pages, yahoo only,
whatever, as desired).

Sorry about being terse.

J
 
Your right -- "out of the box," it will not. However, one can
add a simple filter to remove them (all pages, yahoo only,
whatever, as desired).
Click to expand...

What I mean is, it can never know with 100% certainty what is a
beacon and what isn't. Even normal images on a page are beacons.
How do you prevent that? You can't.
 
What I mean is, it can never know with 100% certainty what
is a beacon and what isn't. Even normal images on a page
are beacons. How do you prevent that? You can't.
Click to expand...
Hmm, a challenge? ;)

Seriously: could you post some specific examples (links)?

TIA
J
 
Hmm, a challenge? ;)

Seriously: could you post some specific examples (links)?
Click to expand...

I'm talking theoretically. Any good web host can tell the
webmaster when a graphic was viewed... how does one intend
to prevent that? If you need to view the graphic, then as
soon as you do, it's logged.
 
qwerty said:
I'm talking theoretically. Any good web host can tell the
webmaster when a graphic was viewed... how does one intend
to prevent that? If you need to view the graphic, then as
soon as you do, it's logged.
Click to expand...

In case it's not clear: the point I'm making is that web beacons
can be ANY size, not just 0x0 or 1x1 pixels. :)
 
In case it's not clear: the point I'm making is that web
beacons can be ANY size, not just 0x0 or 1x1 pixels. :)
Click to expand...

Oh yes, indeed. I'm 'checking' for things a la [ img
src=blahbla.non_pic ], [ blahbla.gif?some_IDs ].

Also, 0x0/1x1 iFrames but that's sometimes used for "good"
stuff.

J
 
In case it's not clear: the point I'm making is that web
beacons can be ANY size, not just 0x0 or 1x1 pixels. :)
Click to expand...

Oh yes, indeed. I'm 'checking' for things a la [ img
src=blahbla.non_pic ], [ blahbla.gif?some_IDs ].
Click to expand...

You're still missing the point. Even if you check the things
above, then the things you DON'T check can still act as beacons.

Basically, ANYTHING accessed on a web page can be a beacon.
How can you prevent that? Only way is to not visit the site.
 
qwerty said:
Basically, ANYTHING accessed on a web page can be a beacon.
Click to expand...

Hell, even NOTHING on a web page can be a beacon... I've got
a web page where my logs show people are still trying to get
a file that no longer exists there! :) Nice to know that
people still want that file after 3 years of it being gone.
 
Or install Proxomitron and never worry about Web Beacons/Bugs.
;)

J
Click to expand...
\Touche! Me too! It's one of if not the best freeware program
written to date. Too bad idiots had to do what they did! Anyway,
I still use it. THE BEST!

Helen
 
-snip-
\Touche! Me too! It's one of if not the best freeware
program written to date. Too bad idiots had to do what
they did! Anyway, I still use it. THE BEST!

Helen
Click to expand...
Hiya,

Curious: did you set it up to filter https .. and, if so, what's
your experience?

TIA

J
 
I've found the defaults to work fine. I've been using it for years and
on some machines without a firewall! I didn't set up filters to https
on this.... however, I've setup filters when using other programs.
 
net...

I've found the defaults to work fine. I've been using it
for years and on some machines without a firewall! I
didn't set up filters to https on this.... however, I've
setup filters when using other programs.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Same here. But recently, some login pages are adding
obnoxious ads.

J
 
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