Over the last year there has been a great deal
of controversy about posting HTML messages in
newsgroups.  One aspect of this debate, which
I don't believe has been touched on, is the
issue of privacy. With straight ASCII, only you and your ISP 
know that you have read a particular newsgroup message.  
However in HTML messages, it is possible with JavaScript
to track who has viewed a particular newsgroup message
and provide this information to anyone.

This message demonstrates the problem if you use
Netscape or Outlook Express to read newsgroups.
The IP address and computer name displayed is
for your viewing only.  However, JavaScript can
easily be used to silently send this information off to 
any Email address.

It is also possible to write a Perl script on a 
Web server that returns a list of everyone who
has read a newsgroup message.  JavaScript can then
be used to download and display this list as 
part of the newsgroup message.

To solve this problem, I think that newsgroup
readers like Netscape and Outlook Express 
should turn off automatic execution of JavaScript
programs in newsgroup messages.