Internet advertisers are collecting detailed information about the online behavior of consumers. Consumers may not be aware this is happening. Web site operators need to notify consumers of the information collection practices associated with their pages (whether these practices are controlled by third-party advertisers or the web site itself) and give consumers a reasonably-accessible method for opting out.
What’s a web bug?
A web bug (sometimes called a "clear gif" by the advertising industry) is an inconspicuous graphic loaded on a web page, usually from a different server than that used for the rest of the page. Web bugs are often invisible because they are extremely small. They are placed on a page to allow the source to record "hit" information about visitors to that page. (A "hit" is the retrieval of any item, like a page or a graphic, from a web server.) This hit information is reported to the advertising networks who have a relationship with the site.
