PayPal: pixel.gif - Do I need it?

Question

At the end of my PayPal buttons theres this line:

<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_AU/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">

It ruins the aesthetics of my design a little. Anyone know what its purpose is and can I remove it?

Answer 1

I have setup multiple paypal buttons without pixel.gif being present.

You can remove it if you want. It is there for PayPal to monitor traffic as it is stated there

PayPal uses this line of code for internal use only to monitor traffic. Use of this code is optional. You can learn more by Googling "tracking pixel".