Let's talk about cookies!

Cookies everywhere
Linux, Mac, Windows, BSD



What are cookies? What are the things it can do? are they poisonous?

A single page can have tons of cookies how can I manage it?
Is there a law on when/how much information a site can collect from cookies?


cookies, cookies, cookies... I'm scared of cookies

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

Enough to read there. If you don't want cookies you can set your browser to not accept them.

Gerard

 

What can you say about cookies? Let em pile up, then toss em out when you close your browser. You can always just block third party cookies only. Really they're no big deal.

 

I clean them maybe once a week. Not a big deal.

 

I accept them all but only keep white listed sites like this one.

It's easy to do so for me. I use Firefox and with the selectivecookiedelete extension, when I close Firefox, they all go away but the ones I want to keep.

 

There are a couple of ways to manage cookies. First is cleaning them regularly (browser cleaners like CCleaner). Second is blacklisting them (13.7. on my list). Third is whitelisting them (13.21. on my list). Last is blocking either third-party or all (browser privacy settings).

 

They can be!!!

Its best to clean them EVERY DAY!!!!! (Several times i day)


I have 3rd party cookies blocked also

 

I guess. I'm not too worried about tracking.

 

I block the third-party cookies and set to clean the cookies everytime the browser closes. Also I use BetterPrivacy and Ghostery For Firefox.

 

What defines a cookie as third-party?

 

It's not from the site you're on.

 

Ah. So if I'm on Wilders and an ad tries to install a cookie or something?

 

Yes. They're usually not useful for saving sessions and settings. More likely to be tracking you.

 

Ah, thank you.

Now blocking 3rd party cookies in Chrome haha

 

Don't be afraid - I like to collect them

 

I used to clean them or disable because i had the impression they could be transmitters of disease...is that true?

 

Pay attention to flash cookies as well who is interested.

Gerard

 

No, cookies are just text files placed by and used by the sites one visits. Third party cookies are from marketing companies that the site you are visiting has contracted with to either obtain marketing data, site visit data or to work with the sale of products or services.

Flash cookies are functionally similar but are not text based (to my knowledge.) Since Flash cookies are newer, methods for dealing with them are not as widespread as text cookies.

At work, I recently ran into an employee HR website that requires Flash cookies for it to work. It's one of the first ones I've seen that forces the issue via Flash. Prior to this, I normally ran with Flash cookies disabled...

 

how do you do that?

 

You can block Flash storage easier than ever if you are running the latest version. Just go into the Windows Control Panel and open the Flash Player shortcut. (If you are running 64-bit Windows, you'll need to click on the 32-bit Control Panel options link.) The Flash Storage tab is the first one. Just set it to block all sites. If you want to delete all previous storage, just use the Delete All link on that page. (You can also control/prevent other Flash actions by reviewing the info on the other tabs.)

 

Odd... Mine sticks on 2 Win 7 PCs @ home. And my XP PC @ work.

 

I use a Firefox add on to block all cookies except for sites that I allow. I also use Better Privacy for Flash cookies.

 

Excellent

 

Cookies are basically harmless, and do little more than possibly track to see how many hits the associated web site gets. They may actually help a web site to load faster. However, If you visit a questionable web site, that would be the time to delete your collection of cookies, or otherwise known as data miners.