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WHILE you’re watching the kids, who’s watching you? Security experts have
revealed a flaw in the Netscape Navigator browser, version 3.0 or later, that
lets Web authors capture the e-mail addresses of anyone who visits their
pages—leaving the visitor none the wiser.

In March last year a similar flaw was unearthed. It affected most major
browsers but was fixed in later versions. The latest problem was reported to
Netscape earlier this month, but the man who found it, Kevin McCurley, has yet
to receive an answer from the company.

The bug is in JavaScript, Netscape’s simpler substitute for Sun’s Java
programming language. With a few lines of code embedded invisibly on a Web page,
the author of the page can cause your browser to send an e-mail message
containing any specified text to any destination—usually to the author’s
own mailbox. A demonstration and explanation of the problem can be found at
http://www.digicrime.com/noprivacy.html.