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Do Not Call Site Has AT&T Stats Tracker?
hookedup writes "The Register is carrying an article about suspicious content at the FTC's Do Not Call site. It has been a runaway hit with US consumers, with over fifty million signing up to avoid spam calls from telemarketers. But the web site hides a little secret: a 1x1 pixel image tracking visitors... and where does the trail lead but to the AT&T, one of the most persistent telemarketers." However, the tipster, James 'Kibo' Parry, notes: "There isn't any evidence proving they _are_ up to anything improper, but this relationship between the FTC and AT&T fails to avoid the potential for impropriety."
Just a small nitpick - the article fails to mention that only users of browsers capable of (or set to by default) showing images can be tracked by this method.
Long live lynx!
... is whot bwings os tugevza tsuzay.
It is http://aens.net/
Att Managed Services. I assume that it the ISP that is hosting this site or something?
what? what I thought we were in the trust tree in the nest, were we not?
Um...
AT&T Government Solutions Will Operate Do-Not-Call List
www.christopherlewis.com
the "don't call me, spam me" list.. saying they are collecting millions of email from users and have a dubious privacy policy.
Agreed. So, why do Slashdotters, a group I consider more privacy-aware than most people, sign up through their website? Use the 800 number, and you don't need an email address (and you don't really "give up" any info by telling them your phone number, since they need to know it to block it anyway).
Strange. I agree completely this looks a tad bit unkosher, but a very very simple way around it exists. Use the phone, Luke!
IIRC, AT&T runs and hosts the site for the FTC - there's no way they could do it themselves... And the webbug is probably part of the standard configuration...
No it ought not to be there, but I assume they are all over the friggin place, and run WebWasher to filter them...
Given that, this article is useless.
But even more so, if you go to the site it says at the bottom: This privacy policy states:There. Case solved. Stop being paranoid about such silly things. If you want to be paranoid, be paranoid that the MPAA might accidentally associate your IP with file sharing even if you don't file share, or be paranoid that John Ashcroft is using the PATRIOT Act or Patriot Act II (to be introduced in Congress soon) to spy on you for reasons unrelated to terrorism (as he has done). Better yet, donate some money to the ACLU to protect your civil liberties or to the EFF to protect your electronic freedoms.
Server logs don't tell you everything you need to know if you're going to run a serious, full-service Web site -- things like what resolution your lusers are running at, etc. You need to use 1x1 shenanigans for that. Period.
wow, the same kibo of usenet fame now graces slashdot.
for those of you not familiar with one who has been once declared a "USENET Deity", here's a brief article describing the man, the myth, the legend.
Shortly after I signed up for the Do Not Call list through the website, I began recieving calls (about 4 calls since around Sept 1, I believe) from AT&T about getting long distance service. Or I was eligable to recieve a phone card. Or something. I wasn't really listening. Since I live on a college campus there's really no reason for them to be calling.
Who doesn't like free music?
As other people have mentioned, the image is inside a tag, which means it's very simply a tracker to see how many people surf with Javascript disabled. Server logs won't tell you that.
It probably is a counter. AT&T is the company that the FTC contracted to host the DNC servers. That was mentioned in articles when the DNC site went up and got slammed. The articles stated that AT&T was scrambling to add extra servers to the pool to handle the unexpected load.
Uh, what? How does loading a 1x1 GIF reveal anything about your screen resolution? It will simply be another entry in a log file, which records the URL, the IP address, the time, the referer, and the user-agent. All of those fields are present in the log of the server that's serving the main html page.
In order to determine any further info about the user, you'd have to use Javascript to get this information from the DOM, and then somehow code that into a URL which gets submitted or posted to a server somewhere. From the blurb in the article there was no such code, just a simple IMG tag.
As someone who used to run www.att.com, I think I can safely say that they know each other.
Intimately.
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
AT&T the phone company is NOT the same as their hosting company. They may both be affiliated, but they can do seperate business. Common people!