Slashdot Mirror
Marketers Back "Cookies Are Good For You" Campaign
Makarand writes "The increasing numbers of computer users
who regularly delete cookies downloaded by
their browsers is
worrying online marketers and Web
site publishers who feel that the changing
consumer attitude towards cookies is harming
cookie usefulness and unfairly lumping them
with spyware and viruses. This industry group
wants to persuade companies making antispyware programs
to spare legitimate cookies while sweeping hard drives clean
of unnecessary or harmful files.
Some marketers think that providing consumers more information about cookies and how they're used
might change their attitudes towards cookies.
Others are already busy experimenting with newer approaches to serve up targeted ads even if a user has deleted his cookies."
It's a "workaround" for screwing up people that actually bother to delete cookies.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
... although I should note that I *do* work in marketing, as a Webmaster. But cookies really do have a great number of uses, and often provide a good amount of convenience to users without having too many pernicious uses in practice. When people who don't know better are prompted by adaware to delete all of their cookies, the net effect is more likely to be frustration than anything--people don't tend to remember their passwords, for example, so being "forgotten" by some sites is likely to be a pain.
And while cookies might be used to 'serve up targeted ads', it seems to me that if you're going to be served ads *anyhow* then you might as well see things that might be of interest to you...
The Permit Cookies extension sounds like what you need. It lets you allow a site's cookies via a hotkey (ALT + C by default). The version from Firefox's Extension site seems to require an older Firefox. Clicking through to the author's homepage gets you to a version that works in Firefox 1.0.4.
You do realize that your harmless login-only news sites, and quite possibly your bank too, sell your viewing habits to marketers as an additional source of revenue, right? Sure it won't identify you (I hope, for you) but you feed the marketting system all the same.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
What a nifty trick.
n /flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html
Looks as if flash gives each site a very small amount of local storage.
The article says it can be disabled, but doesn't link to any information.
A quick trip over to macromedia shows the web access controls... which is handy for setting global restrictions. Not really sure where my flash panel would be other then when the module is loaded, but here is a link to a web based method of setting those restrictions.
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/e
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Most browsers (including Firefox and even IE) do this already, though you need to alter the settings to make it happen. The browser makers figure (probably rightly) that most users won't want to take the trouble to enable cookies for every site where they want a persistent login, so the default is usually just to accept them.
Another workaround is just to delete *all* cookies regularly, and let the browser remember usenames and passwords.
I've found this configuration to be optimal for me:
1. Always keep "ask before setting cookies" checked.
2. When you go to a site you know would like to save relevant info on you (login status, online cart...), just check "allow sites to set cookies". Now you get to answer "yes" to its cookies or "no" if ad server cookies are sneaked in while you have this enabled.
3. Afterwards, and in all other cases, keep "allow sites to set cookies" unchecked.
You'll now never have sites annoyingly popup the "XYZ wish to set a cookie" dialog, and the only time you have to at all care for them is when you for the first time visit a site with cookies you want it to set. All other times, nothing will be set for stuff you don't want (disallow cookies in Firefox will still allow cookies you have formerly accepted) and nothing will be popped up about cookies.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Nah, it's a Flash function (Local Shared Objects) that behaves like cookies and can replace them. Lucky us, Firefox already has an extension to delete these suckers
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
I've been using whitelisting with [first party] cookies (generally with sites I'm a member of) and javascript (only for sites I use that require it such as gmail). Normally this would be a tedious task, but I have some extensions to help me out when it comes to security in this manner.
Actually, I have probably over 40 extensions installed right now, but those are some of the most useful.
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
You can disable the flash "cookies" with the flash player settings manager.
To those who are going to say that marketers tell the truth about products to people who don't know the truth...fuck that. That was true in 1955, and was called advertising. It's not true in 2005, and it's called marketing. I don't think that was true even in 1955. Snake oil salesmen have a longer history, and plenty of quack cures were touted by Madison Avenue long before that.
The Persistent Identification Element is just another example of the lengths marketing scum will go to clandestinely as possible track your movements and sell your data to anyone with a check book. Not that most users shouldn't realize by now that any plugin is likely to be some form of tracking/spyware. For those of you unfortunate enough to be trapped on IE, Flash Disable is a handy tool, its just a pretty front end to disabling & enabling the registry key for flash - one less icon that doing it with importing reg keys manually: Handy Reg Keys Way, both of them require a browser restart to take effect though. Of course, aside from flash being really annoying - its more effective to get to the root of the security problem itself with the security settings panel for Macromedia Flash Player, but you have to flip through several different settings to actually disable them and delete existing ones (under "allow websites to store information how much information on your computer"): Flash Settings Manager. Or perhaps you would like the more permanent fix of: Uninstalling Flash Player Entirely For those using Mozilla and Firefox, you likely already have Flashblock installed, but you should still check out the security settings for Flash.
Freedom is merely privilege extended unless enjoyed by one and all.
Get Privoxy. You know you want to.
I've been surfing the web, advertisement free, since 1998.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.