Privacy Issues about the favicon.ico File
Description
Every time you bookmark a page in MSIE 5 it will send to the web
server a request for a file named favicon.ico (see "MSIE 5 favicon bug" for an
explanation about what this file is, along other nice things). This
give to web servers admins a way to know that someone has bookmarked
it's site; the info includes the date and time of the operation plus
the address IP of the machine which bookmarked the site. This may or
may not bother you.
Impact
MSIE 5 will reveal to web servers admins that you bookmarked their
sites.
Workaround
It seems that it's not possible to turn off this feature, so if this
bother you, don't bookmark sites with MSIE 5 or don't use it at all.
What Microsoft is Doing
Microsoft was not contacted about this issue. They were already
informed about a a much more dangerous issue
about the favicon.ico file and took no measure to fix it
in about one month. I don't have plans to contact them about this
privacy issue just because I don't want to waste my time anymore with
this.
Disclaimer
All information contained in this page is for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES
ONLY. The author of this page can not be made responsible for any
damage caused by the use or minuse of information here contained.
Related Documents
About
This issue was discovered in april 1999 by Flavio Veloso <flaviovs@centroin.com.br>.