question re hotlinking and privacy

trebektrebek
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
On a couple of the forums I frequent, folks sometimes put hotlinked images from pornsites and such into posts for shock value. I was wondering if my browser/computers privacy was at risk because of this. Can the site hosting the hotlinked image get my ip address/cookie me, etc.?



The thought occurred to my and I'm a bit concerned especially w/regards to my work computer. I don't surf anywhere particularly questionable on my work machine, but every once in a while I get nailed w/something graphic.



Sorry if this is a dumb question or whatever but I'm not the savvyiest internet user. All of these forums use vBulletin if that makes a difference.



Thanks,

Matt

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    pesipesi Posts: 424member
    risk? it's hard to say.



    but once you load an image from a site, your IP address is in their logs. most likely, anyway.
  • Reply 2 of 2
    1337_5l4xx0r1337_5l4xx0r Posts: 1,558member
    trebek, you can look into a piece of free, very good software called privoxy which allows you to filter out banner ads and porn sites with very good hit/miss ratios.

    I use it because I am allergic to bad graphic design, which runs rampant in ads. The web is so much... quieter on my powerbook. Pages load faster too, esp. on dialup (I'm on BB).



    But you are being a bit paranoid.
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