5 responses to “Adobe finally promises to rein in Flash cookies”

1. 

   Gordon Oulsnam January 15th, 2011 at 22:38

   Hi Woody,

   I always read your column in Windows Secrets.

   What then is your opinion on the Firefox ‘BetterPrivacy’ add-on for removing LSOs? It regularly reports, and supposedly removes, LSOs almost every time I log out from Firefox.

   In particular, does it really solve the problem of finding and deleting *all* lso/zombie cookies?

   Gordon

2. 

   woody January 16th, 2011 at 08:16

   @Gordon -

   As long as you only use Firefox, the BetterPrivacy add-on gets good reviews. With HTML5 coming, Flash is only part of the problem. I think the real solution is to use Private Browsing almost all of the time – the only exception being when you’re headed to a site and you want to keep the cookie (e.g., a shopping site).

3. 

   Dan W January 16th, 2011 at 10:55

   Hey Woody,

   I don’t post often, but I read your blog here regularly, and appreciate your insight on the issues we computer users face. (Your guidance on each round of patches alone is priceless!) Keep up the good work, and thanks!

   Like other users, I’m interested in finding ways to mitigate the zombie cookie issue. Currently I’m trying Sandboxie to deal with these, and it seems to be doing the job, as far as I can tell.

   Best,

   Dan W

4. 

   Gordon Oulsnam January 16th, 2011 at 17:14

   @Wooody -

   Many thanks for your response!

   Gordon

5. 

   rc primak January 18th, 2011 at 13:03

   To All –

   See my Comment in the Infoworld Tech Watch entry (follow Woody’s link here). There are add-ons which can allow a lot better privacy and security for users of all major browsers. I use Google Chrome most of the time, but Firefox actually has a richer selection of useful add-ons for this purpose.

   Select add-ons which block Tracking Cookies, and which can remove and block Flash Cookies and Flash content on web pages. Click N Clean can remove most “super-cookies”, even many HTML-5 varieties. All major browsers can use Abine’s TACO, which is the closest thing to a Do Not Track Registry we have at the moment in the USA. And CCleaner can be set up to take care of a lot of “super cookies”.

   HTML-5 presents new challenges, but these are already being addressed by the major developers of these and other privacy add-ons and cleanup software offerings.

   You do not need a whole arsenal to defend yourselves, but no one tool seems to catch and dispense with all forms of Internet tracking techniques. Choose whatever you want for your desired level of privacy and don’t believe the folks who say there’s nothing you can do, or that ad blocking is “theft” or in any other way illegal or unethical.

   And if you do block tracking, expect some web sites to break. That’s just the way some folks play the game.