Thursday, 23 October 2008

Sighted: New tracking tool?

This little warning popped up today when I loaded Ace’s site. It’s new there, although I’ve been getting the same warning from a couple of newspaper sites for the last month or so. Interesting thing about it is, I’m not filling out any forms; the message just appears as the page loads.
Javascript is another one of those things that I don’t know a lot about, but what I think is going on is that one of his adservers is using some kind of hidden form to do tracking, as a way to get around blocked cookies. The Ace page presently loads Javascript from two outside sites:[1] Doubleclick and Nielsen.[2]
Since I’m not interested in being tracked, of course I click “Cancel.†End of problem.
But it’s still annoying.
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This little warning popped up today when I loaded Ace’s site. It’s new there, although I’ve been getting the same warning from a couple of newspaper sites for the last month or so. Interesting thing about it is, I’m not filling out any forms; the message just appears as the page loads.
Javascript is another one of those things that I don’t know a lot about, but what I think is going on is that one of his adservers is using some kind of hidden form to do tracking, as a way to get around blocked cookies. The Ace page presently loads Javascript from two outside sites:[1] Doubleclick and Nielsen.[2]
Since I’m not interested in being tracked, of course I click “Cancel.†End of problem.
But it’s still annoying.
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[1] There are also several scripts on the Ace page itself, but none that look likely to cause this.
[2] I’ve had Nielsen’s secure-us.imrworldwide.com server HOSTfiled for over a year, because of bad behaviour.
[2] I’ve had Nielsen’s secure-us.imrworldwide.com server HOSTfiled for over a year, because of bad behaviour.
Posted by: Old Grouch in
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1
What an odd thing!
Is there a link under the pop-up? Are there links under the buttons? Are the links pointing to the same address?
Is there a link under the pop-up? Are there links under the buttons? Are the links pointing to the same address?
Posted by: Turk Turon at 10/24/08 00:44:12 (spaPo)
2
No, it's a real Windows dialogue box, not something on the site. (Here's the post it appeared over in the screenshot.) The message is coming from the browser, and I usually see it if I'm logging onto a site with a nonencrypted logon page (or when I'm submitting a comment).
There appear to be some JS commands that can pre-fill out and validate form data, and forms can have hidden elements. I'm guessing that there's also one that can send the form data without user intervention.
There appear to be some JS commands that can pre-fill out and validate form data, and forms can have hidden elements. I'm guessing that there's also one that can send the form data without user intervention.
Posted by: Old Grouch at 10/24/08 02:46:03 (rublp)
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