ITPEC FE Morning April 2021 Question 34

A small image embedded in a web page to collect user information — a web beacon tracks visitors each time the page or e-mail is opened.

A web beacon is a tiny, usually invisible image, often 1 × 1 pixel, loaded from a tracking server. Displaying the page makes the browser request it, and that request tells the server that the page was viewed, when, from which IP address and with which browser, often together with a cookie. Advertisers and e-mail marketers use it to measure access trends.

Answer (b)

Why not others:

• •(a) — a potential error in a website's program is a bug or vulnerability, not a tracking method
• •(c) — a downloaded virus that deletes image files is malware; a web beacon damages nothing
• •(d) — a malicious script that harms the client and the web server is a script attack such as cross-site scripting

Key rule: A web beacon is a privacy concern, not an attack: it silently collects access information by making the browser fetch an image.

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