Amazon.com assistance-tracking-pixel.swf downloads

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Guest
Guest

Amazon.com assistance-tracking-pixel.swf downloads

Post by Guest »

Recently, whenever I go to the Amazon.com home page, the "Downloads" box pops up and I see a small file called "assistance-tracking-pixel.swf" downloading. This triggers GOM Player to load and try to play the file, which it can't.

Amazon.com denied having anything to do with the code, but I found it by using View-Page Source:

! height=!0! width=!0!src=!http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/da/common/assistance-tracking-pixel.swf?url=http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/amzn.us.pushdown/

This does not happen when viewing the Amazon.com home page with IE.
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Grumpus
Posts: 13239
Joined: October 19th, 2007, 4:23 am
Location: ... Da' Swamp

Re: Amazon.com assistance-tracking-pixel.swf downloads

Post by Grumpus »

It's a shockwave file and you need a flash player to view it.
It could however be an advertisement or a "screen "cookie since it's not coming from Amazon but coming from the advertising side of doubleclick. The reason you see it fail in Firefox is more than likely because IE won't tell you it's showing or will plant the thing on your screen somewhere without your knowledge in order to track your movements while at Amazon for the benefit of doubleclick.net clients.
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
User avatar
Grumpus
Posts: 13239
Joined: October 19th, 2007, 4:23 am
Location: ... Da' Swamp

Re: Amazon.com assistance-tracking-pixel.swf downloads

Post by Grumpus »

It's a shockwave file and you need a flash player to view it.
It could however be an advertisement or a "screen "cookie since it's not coming from Amazon but coming from the advertising side of doubleclick. The reason you see it fail in Firefox is more than likely because IE won't tell you it's showing or will plant the thing on your screen somewhere without your knowledge in order to track your movements while at Amazon for the benefit of doubleclick.net clients.
Doesn't matter what you say, it's wrong for a toaster to walk around the house and talk to you
Guest
Guest

Re: Amazon.com assistance-tracking-pixel.swf downloads

Post by Guest »

Thanks for your help! I blocked it by copying the code into the Adblock Plus filters. Thanks again.
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