Here is a followup to the story earlier today that the White House web site uses web bugs.

White House Says Web Site Counts Visitors, By ANICK JESDANUN, The Associated Press, December 30, 2005.

The White House said Friday its Web tracking technology is consistent with federal rules because it only counts the number of visitors anonymously and doesn't record personal information.

Note that wikipedia says that web bugs "are used when monitoring has to be done by a server that is different than the one holding the Web pages; this is necessary for example when the Web pages are served by different servers, or when the monitoring has to be done by a third party."

See also EFF's web bug FAQ.