What are web bugs, well you should know especially since this is tax preparation time. Apparently a lot of large companies to include Intuit and H&R Block (The free sites on the IRS web site are not government and they direct you to other companies that are using web bugs!).
You may not know of a stealthy technology commonly known as Web Bugs (could also be referred to as sneakware or spyware) are being used to track your comings and goings on the Internet.
Intuit and H&R Block use hidden Web Bugs throughout the tax-preparation process to monitor taxpayer's on line behavior.
Web Bugs, also known as web beacons, are virtually ubiquitous among sites belonging to large companies.
The technology connects a companies site with that of an affiliated marketing firm, which collects and analyzes data on web usage. These companies say they are employed only to maintain the quality of the respective offerings.
Privacy advocate beg to differ as web bugs could capture your name, social security number (both used to prepare taxes) and other information that you willingly pass to a web site.
This technology can be used to capture any data they want. The usage depends on the companies eithics and policies.
These web bugs are routinely used by companies to gather data about on line visitors browsing habits.
Little is known about the so-called web analytic firms that specialize in on line tracking. The tracking process is transparent. It is almost impossible to say how much data they have and what exactly they do with it.
Web bugs raise questions abut the motives of companies that employ them.
The whole purpose of this technology is to hide tracking from customers. You can not see the web bugs. You do not know they are there. This is exactly how the direct-marketing industry prefers it - tracking methods that can not be detected or disabled.
How can you be sure that your personal info is not being passed to other companies for marketing purposes. The companies say, "You've just got to trust us, if we didn't uphold our privacy commitment, we wouldn't be here."
Web bugs have no technological barriers and can be used to record virtually anything about the Internet user. This is a little freaky especially where your TAX RETURN (containing all the information one would use to steal your identity) is concerned (electronic filing!).
You are being asked to trust the private sector to serve as a conduit for your most intimate data.
Example: One of the nation's largest handlers of consumer data similarly insists that privacy is a priority. They said, "Good privacy is good business.". That company is CHOICEPOINT, which revealed in February that it had released the names and SSN's of about 145K people to identity thieves.
Do you trust them?
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