One of the Most Stupid things I've seen on a computer

Got this in my Hotmail browser today when I opened a message in my junk mail folder

NOTE:To help protect your privacy (more info) Hotmail blocked images in this message.Click here to show blocked images.

Can somebody please tell me how blocking jpg images protects my privacy???? If they really wanted to protect my privacy maybe they wouldn't have added my name to the hotmail member directory so I can penis enlargment adds and breast size increasment spam. That's gotta be up there with the more ignorant things I've seen, but then again I haven't slept much so maybe someone has a reasonable explanation.

whenever you view a jpg, a request is sent to the webserver containing the jpg, this can be used to track you

geocities are infamous for using single pixel images as a way around cookies

But if it's in an e-mail would not the only server getting the request be hotmail's server itself?????? I mean if I send out an e-mail my computer would be the one that has the image, if my computer is off someone can still open the message and see the picture, so it's not coming off of my computer.

when you open an email on hotmail, it is opened in your browser, to view an image.. your browser download its from whereever the image is hosted, depends on if the image in the email is linked or is attached