IP addresses and personal information (was Re: [LINK] Fwd: On Line Opinion - 16 February 2007)

[rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au]

Irene Graham wrote:

>EFA raised the Hitwise issue in a submission to the Senate Legal and 
>Constitutional References Committee's Inquiry into the Privacy Act 1988:
>Sect 4.3(a) Businesses covertly surveilling Internet users
>http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/efasubm-slcrc-privact2004.html#52_9
>or
>http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/privacy/submissions/sub1
>7.pdf
>  
>
Irene,

Without getting into the tit-for-tat over Hitwise's techniques, there 
are other approaches to Web stats which bother me more. In particular, 
there's the pratcise of launching an invisible redirect using Port 443 - 
that is, while the page is loading, you get flick-passed to an SSL 
session to the ad counting company.

This, I presume, is to help distinguish 'unique visitors' - but how does 
the technique work?

RC