Like technology, advertising continues to expand, but to market products, businesses must understand what the customer wants, which leads to invasive practices such as cookies and Web bugs. Advertisers use tools such as pixel codes on the Internet to track what people like, then use that information to create advertisements tailored to the user. Others use cookies and bugs to track even more information that is often dangerous, such as sniffing out all the email addresses in your client's address book. Web bugs use pixel codes to load information about your browser and online history with scripts. To track these pixel codes, you can use special software or look at the HTML of the Web page.
Instructions
1. Download and install Ghostery, a program that tracks and detects Web bug scripts. Ghostery allows you to control who can see your online history and detect your browser. This program works with many browser types, from Firefox to Google Chrome.
2. Install the No Script extension for Firefox from Open Source Software. The add-on only loads scripts from trusted websites of the user's choice. No Script blocks JavaScript, Java and Flash scripts from performing harmful or unwanted Web bug tracking on your system.
3. Right click the Web page and click "View Page Source." The HTML loads in a text file. Press "CTRL" and "F" and search for .GIF or .PNG or "img src" to look for pixel images in the document. The image will be invisible with dimensions of 1-by-1 pixel.
4. Download and install Firetrust's Benign email protection. Web bugs commonly rest in email messages, waiting to be loaded once opened. Benign tracks Web bugs in emails and prevents them from collecting information.
Tags: cookies bugs, Download install, online history, pixel codes, scripts from, your browser