Anybody know of a way to remove or disable web bugs/web beacons/clear gifs from incoming emails? These things piss me off to no end. Even when I get something from a source I “trust”, it annoys me that they’re “spying” on me. It’s not about being paranoid, I just consider it incredibly rude and intrusive. It’s nobody’s damn business when I read an email (I even have an agent set up to remove the return receipt field from incoming emails).
Are there any products (or code) out there that will strip them out at the server or at the client? Ideally I guess I’d like to have the same functionality as Mozilla Thunderbird, which disables graphics by default, but lets you choose whether to load them after you open the email. But that’s probably asking too much.
Subject: Web bugs, beacons, clear gifs… any solutions to this scourge?
I agree, but the problem is a lot of the e-mails also store the other graphics remotely so if you turn it off for the one, you’re likely going to have the problem for a lot of images. The Proxy server solution posted should do the trick… Just get use to the red X’s
Subject: Web bugs, beacons, clear gifs… any solutions to this scourge?
A simple expedient would be to set an internet proxy server that doesn’t exist in your location doc.
Subject: one question …
do you want to do this for just you personallyor for an organisation?
I ask because I’ve worked for companies that used a 3rd party service as a buffer between their Notes based email system and the Internet.
IIRC that 3rd party offered many of the features you request
at least as far as “spyware”.
In general I do agree that most of the “tracking” features are intrusive
however I dont agree with your blanket “Return Receipt” philosophy especially in a “business process support” situation.
Quite often for critical message I enable save as sent, delivery and return receipt. These features allow me to deal factually with three of the most common excuses for inaction from the recipient : “I never got your message” , “I’ve only just got the message” , “I’ve only just read your message”.
In a team situation, it can be EACTLY someone elses business when you read an email 
Subject: RE: one question …
Alan, I know you’re right about the return receipt thing. It’s probably going a little too far, although it’s never really been an issue yet, and I mostly did it because one of the guys I used to work with would put RR on every single email he sent.
Thanks for the proxy suggestion guys. I guess I was hoping for some magic LS code that would strip out web beacons based on some sort of pattern matching or something (red flags like width/height=1. query strings, etc.). I may play around with something like that some day. If I ever get a free moment…