Over the past few days, users browsing many websites on the internet have been having an occasional problem with “px.bin“.
The file called “px.bin” will be downloaded automatically on the screen. Users of all types of browsers, such as Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera, are experiencing this problem. Many people fear that the file may contain a virus. Of course, it is not a virus. There is no danger of that happening.
What is px.bin?
So, what is px.bin? Is it a virus? Is it malware? Is your computer under attack? There are so many questions with little to zero answers on the Internet. Hence, we have decided to dig deeper and help you address this problem to its core.
First of all, let’s understand that this is not a new problem. We have come across Firefox support forum posts where some users first described this issue five years ago!
For now, there seems to be confusion about whether this is a bug or some kind of malware. For instance, we have come across some online entries that consider this to be a browser hijacker. But due to lack of evidence and research that concludes what the file px.bin is all about, we have no reason to believe at the moment that it’s a security threat.
The px.bin is so-called a “Web Beacon” or “Tracking Pixels” (or “web bug”, “tracking bug”, “tag”, “web tag”, “page tag”, “pixel tag”, “1×1 GIF”, “clear GIF”) is a technique used on web pages and email to unobtrusively (usually invisibly) allow checking that a user has accessed some content. Web beacons are typically used by third parties to monitor the activity of users at a website for the purpose of web analytics or page tagging.
Web Beacon or Tracking Pixels
There are two ways of user tracking, via the web, and Bluetooth tracking. First, tracking a targeted user online given the user’s email address. Tracking a user every time they open an email sent from some marketing campaign on their desktop, mobile, or laptops. Each marketing campaign that is sent has web beacons and includes hyperlinked content using URL shortener loggers. Then either the user will visit the tracking website, or they are requested to fill out a form with some information.
For those who are using almost all browsers now, this problem is randomly occurring when looking at different types of websites on the internet. There is currently no solution for this, but there is no risk if you download the px.bin file into your phone or computer. So no need to worry.
What you could try to do to fix px.bin download pop-ups
Whatever it may be, there is nothing wrong with being careful when it comes to such random and mysterious download pop-ups.
- Clear your browser cache
- Update your web browser to the latest stable version.
- Run a complete malware scan.
- Let us know if you have any additional inputs to share.
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