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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."
Slashdot runs MS ads.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Um...
AT&T Government Solutions Will Operate Do-Not-Call List
www.christopherlewis.com
The article says, "The FTC confirmed that AT&T Managed Services is its contractor, and hosts the website."
They don't need a 1x1 image to track usage... they have the server logs!
Sure, it seems like nothing now. But once all the Opera and Mozilla users have been rounded up, put into camps and executed it'll be too late.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
You must be new here. That's only one order of magnatude. Around here, that's pretty good.
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
Will someone please tell me what would prevent a telemarketing company outside the US from obtaining this very accurate list of phone numbers?
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
The web bug is to http://g6589dcs.nyc2.aens.net
Aens.net is
AT&T Enhanced Network Services (AENS6-DOM)
POB 919014
San Diego, CA 92191-9014
US
Which is basically AT&T Managed Services.
I'm assuming its a bug to make sure the site is up and running...
Course I could be wrong, and it is a part of a national conspiracy to make my dinner get cold.
www.christopherlewis.com
Wait until the story is duped a few times, they should all add up to the right number eventually.
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.
Here is the snippet from the page http://www.donotcall.gov/ Note that the img tag is embedded in the noscript tag. That is, this img is only loaded in graphical browsers that don't use javascript. Since AT&T has the government contract to implement the DNC list, I don't think there's anything sinister going on here, they just want a count of the number of users that don't use/enable javascript.
/ njs.gif?dcsuri=/nojavascript">
-molo
<noscript>
<img BORDER="0" NAME="DCSIMG" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1" SRC="http://g6589dcs.nyc2.aens.net/DCS000003_6D4Q
</noscript>
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
I would hope that "building" the site for $3.5 million also includes running it, ongoing maintenance, etc. Because if the government really paid AT&T $3.5 million to BUILD it and still has to pay some ongoing fee, they got ripped by an order or two of magnitude.
Government waste isn't surprising, but it's sad when it is made so obvious. A good percentage of the folks here at Slashdot could have done just as good a job for a fraction of the cost and STILL recorded a very good year income-wise.
http://www.defenselink.mil/nii/org/cio/doc