Do you belong to any Yahoo Groups?

If you belong to any Yahoo groups,
 
You are being tracked - Urgent information for all group members: If you belong to any yahoo Groups this is important... Sharing a tidbit of information:

Yahoo is now using something called "Web Beacons" to track Yahoo Group users around the net and see what you're doing and where you are going similar to cookies. Yahoo is recording every website and every group you visit. Take a look at their updated privacy statement: http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy

About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will see alink that says web beacons. Click on the phrase web beacons. That will bring you to a paragraph entitled "Outside the Yahoo Network."In this section you'll see a little "click here to opt out" link that will let you "opt-out" of their new method of snooping.

Once you have clicked that link, you are exempted.Notice the "Success" message on the top of the next page. Be careful because on that page there is a "Cancel Opt-out" button that, if clicked, will *undo** the opt-out. Feel free to forward this to other groups.

Please be aware that Microsoft uses "web beacons" also -
 
Use of Web Beacons
Microsoft Web pages may contain electronic images known as Web beacons - sometimes called single-pixel gifs - that may be used to assist in delivering cookies on our sites and allow us to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. We may include Web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or our newsletters in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.

Microsoft may also employ Web beacons from third parties in order to help us compile aggregated statistics and determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns. We prohibit Web beacons on our sites from being used by third parties to collect or access your personal information.

Finally, we may work with other companies that advertise on Microsoft sites to place Web beacons on their sites in order to allow us to develop statistics on how often clicking on an advertisement on a Microsoft site results in a purchase or other action on the advertiser's site.

Check it out here - http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/fullnotice.aspx#collection

Above posted by Rochelle & Ginger in another group.  The thread goes a little further with them posting the following:

"....Is there a way to opt-out of MSN web beacons as well.....?"

"I don't think that you can. I have looked around and am trying to find a good (free) program that will identify web beacons that works like a pop-up blocker. They won't block the web beacon, but will let you know it is there.