I just discovered that VeriSign's SiteFinder Web site is leaking data
submitted in Web forms to its marketing analysis partner, Omniture.
Forms can easily contain personal information such as an email address.
For the problem to occur, a Web form must use the GET method.
This data spill problem occurs if a Web page anywhere on the Internet
submits a Web form to an action URL with a misspelled or expired domain
name. Because of VeriSign's recent controversial changes to the DNS
system, this form data is submitted to the SiteFinder Web site.
SiteFinder in turn passes the form data along to Omniture in the URL of
a Web bug. The Web bug is constructed on the fly by about 50 lines of
JavaScript code embedded in the SiteFinder home page.
This data spill problem raises legal questions because of possible
violations of the VeriSign privacy policy and of the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).
As a point of comparison, it appears that Microsoft went out of their
way to not receive form data with their Smart Search feature. In my
experiments, Smart Search is not enabled for Web form action URLs with
misspelled or expired domain names. Instead, Internet Explorer gives a
generic 404 error page.
Here's an example form that illustrates the problem:
I just discovered that VeriSign's SiteFinder Web site is leaking data
submitted in Web forms to its marketing analysis partner, Omniture.
Forms can easily contain personal information such as an email address.
For the problem to occur, a Web form must use the GET method.
This data spill problem occurs if a Web page anywhere on the Internet
submits a Web form to an action URL with a misspelled or expired domain
name. Because of VeriSign's recent controversial changes to the DNS
system, this form data is submitted to the SiteFinder Web site.
SiteFinder in turn passes the form data along to Omniture in the URL of
a Web bug. The Web bug is constructed on the fly by about 50 lines of
JavaScript code embedded in the SiteFinder home page.
This data spill problem raises legal questions because of possible
violations of the VeriSign privacy policy and of the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).
As a point of comparison, it appears that Microsoft went out of their
way to not receive form data with their Smart Search feature. In my
experiments, Smart Search is not enabled for Web form action URLs with
misspelled or expired domain names. Instead, Internet Explorer gives a
generic 404 error page.
Here's an example form that illustrates the problem:
<form action="http://www.atypodomainthatismisdirectedbyverisign.com
/cgi-bin/subscribe.pl" method=get>
<input type=hidden name=list value=horsebreeding>
<input type=text name=email>
<input type=submit value="Subscribe">
</form>
And here's what the URL of Omniture Web bug looks like with an email
address from the form in it:
http://verisignwildcard.112.2o7.net/b/ss/verisignwildcard/1/G.2-Verisign
-S/s07262928512095?[AQB]&ndh=1&t=23/8/2003%2016%3A6%3A20%202%20240&pageN
ame=Landing%20Page&ch=landing&server=US%20East&c1=www.atypodomainthatism
isdirectedbyverisign.com/cgi-bin/subscribe.pl%3Flist%3Dhorsebreeding%26a
mp%3Bemail%3D&c2=www.atypodomainthatismisdirectedbyverisign.com/cgi-bin/
subscribe.pl%3Flist%3Dhorsebreeding%26amp%3Bemail%3D%20%2800/00%29&c3=ww
w.atypodomainthatismisdirectedbyverisign.com/cgi-bin/subscribe.pl%3Flist
%3Dhorsebreeding%26amp%3Bemail%3D%20%28DYM%29&c12=No&c13=00&c14=No&c15=0
0&c16=Yes&c17=15&c22=NOT%26%2332%3BSET&g=http%3A//sitefinder.verisign.co
m/lpc%3Furl%3Dwww.atypodomainthatismisdirectedbyverisign.com/cgi-bin/sub
scribe.pl%253flist%253Dhorsebreeding%2526email%253D%26host%3Dwww.atypodo
mainthatismisdirectedbyverisign.com&s=1024x768&c=32&j=1.3&v=Y&k=Y&bw=101
6&bh=530&ct=lan&hp=N&[AQE].
Some relevant links are:
Data spills in banner ads
http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/banads.htm
SiteFinder privacy policy
http://sitefinder.verisign.com/privacy.jsp
Omniture privacy policy
http://www.omniture.com/policy.html
Omniture company overview
http://www.omniture.com/company.html
Electronic Communications Privacy Act
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/pIch119.html
Court draws a line for online privacy
http://news.com.com/2100-1029-1001081.html
Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
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