Web Beacons: Cookie Monster or Market Savior?

Anonymity and privacy serve as the primary foundations of Internet usage, frantically guarded by individuals and privacy advocates alike. Companies have walked a tight rope in order to maximize their ability to collect market research while simultaneously respecting the rights of their customers. In an effort to hone in on user behavior and demographic information, tools such as "Web bugs" -- transparent gifs that monitor Web site usage -- have been developed. The use of these Web bugs has become so commonplace among leading Internet destinations and personal Web sites, that Cyveillance estimates roughly a 500 percent increase in their prevalence throughout the past three years.

A leading provider of the so-called Web bugs, Be Free Inc. refutes claims that its services violate any of the principles surrounding the right to privacy. The company prefers to identify their information gathering tools as being "Web beacons," and claims to be an industry leader in maintaining tight controls over all information that passes through its hands. Over 250 customers use the technology to track the performance of marketing promotions.

According to Be Free spokesperson Jennifer Roy, "Data Processing occurs in Exodus facilities. All customer, marketing partner, and consumer data are protected through case-sensitive, alphanumeric passwords that are stored on an encrypted database." She went on to say that strict controls governing data access are practiced; access is granted only to the actual account owners and employees who require user level access. The anonymous profiles themselves are restricted material, accessed only by Be Free itself. The company claims it will not disclose, rent, or sell profiles to any party.

However, the information does serve a purpose. Roy mentioned that the Be Free does reserve the right to, "use anonymous user data to create and report the collective (aggregate) browsing and purchasing activities of anonymous users to its customers." All analysis and disclosure is done in aggravate form, and the company's customers may only use the marketing data as it is governed by their contracts and partners.

Web beacons are placed by affiliates of Be Free directly onto target Web sites in the form of a 1x1 pixel, tracking users from the initial impression, to click through, to the completion of a sale. The actual technology employed is called BSELECT Onsite recommendation technology. It works by assigning a unique identifier to a browser by copying a cookie onto a user's machine.

Unless software featuring the ability to restrict cookies is installed on an end user's machine, the cookie file will be copied without the benefit of interaction. Freeware programs are available to cut through the mess of cookies Internet users are exposed to every time they surf the web. Common applications such as Internet 6.0 are also adopting measures to control cookies.

Among the information collected are IP addresses. The addresses are collected, but will not be associated with the name of any organization or person. No extraneous information is matched to anonymous profiles - meaning anonymous profile cannot be linked to a specific individual, just their Web browser. Roy pointed out how anonymous identifiers are used to combine, "Internet browsing and online purchase data associated with the anonymous identifier to develop a predictive statistical user profile of the visitor's needs and interests." Additionally, Roy told BetaNews, "Our recommendation technology does not collect visitors' names, physical addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, social security numbers, or any other information that can be used to identify a specific person."

Furthering the company's push to appease privacy advocates, Roy told BetaNews about a special Web site, yourcontrolpanel.com, established to allow "customers" to learn about the anonymous information being gathered on their browsing habits. She went on to say that customers can even opt out of the process entirely. Web sites often include information in their privacy policies informing users of the presence of these technologies.

No data is available on what percentage of Internet users tracked by Web beacons utilize the site or more importantly, are even aware of its presence. Leading privacy advocate, Richard M. Smith from the Privacy Foundation informed BetaNews that his Web Bug search page uncovered over 2.7 million websites that include the controversial tools.

When asked for his opinion regarding the Web’s sudden “infestation” of the technology, Smith commented, “They intentionally make Web bugs invisible on Web pages and Web sites don't tell people about Be Free Web bugs in the Web site privacy policies.” Smith and the Privacy Foundation have issued a guide on how companies can be more transparent when they track visitors on their sites.

Be Free contends that their technology does not violate user privacy.