The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) has launched a program to develop online industry standards for the use of web beacons, which are also known as "web bugs." The announcement was timed to
coincide with the Privacy 2001 Conference being held in Cleveland, Ohio. The NAI's web beacon program will respond to consumer privacy concerns through the development standards for the use of web
beacons online. Any organization that uses web beacons will be encouraged to participate in this effort. Web beacons are tools that can be used online to deliver a cookie in a third party context.
This allows companies to perform many important tasks - including unique visitor counts, web usage patterns, assessments of the efficacy of ad campaigns, delivery of more relevant offers, and
tailoring of web site content. The web beacon's cookie is typically delivered or read through a single pixel on the host site.
-- Adam Bernard
