Mozilla bug tracks your online movements

An online community has discovered that Internet browsers Mozilla and Netscape inform the last site you visited where you are on the Web now.

The Web server of the site a user last used receives the URL of the site the user is now at. This information is delivered to the Web server even if the address was manually keyed into the navigation bar, or is one of the user's regular book marked pages. Web browsers collect information if you click on a link to another site from the page you are viewing and this information is stored on the Web server of that Web site; these figures are the measurement source for online advertising. This is one of the first examples of a browser leaking an Internet user's activities to a Web server through normal navigation usage.

Mozilla's 'onunload' function is alleged to be the mole. The open source technology behind Mozilla is also the basis for Netscape and Linux operating system browser Galeon, the bug also appears within these.

Bugtraq, an online community which tests the latest technology for bugs and then releases warnings to users and vendors found the problem last week.

Mozilla users can switch off Javascript enablement to circumvent the hole for the moment, the newsgroup reports.

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