How To Remove Nasty Super-Cookies From Your Browser
This guide shows you how cookies are affecting your browser and how to get rid of them using add-ons.
The original cookie destroyer
image source
As you may know by now, I care about user privacy and am deeply concerned with the mechanisms employed to take it away from you. Today, I want to present you a further helpful extension that you may want to add to your toolbox.
Cookies? Who dat?
HTTP cookies are tiny data files that are created by your browser when you access some pages. This data gets stored on your computer. Most commonly they are 'security' or 'authentication' cookies. They are the kind helpers, that store our passwords in web forms of websites we frequently login to. Further examples are online shops, that remember what items we added to cart or some forms where we filled the name out.
So far, so good.
Third-party party tracking
First-party cookies are cookies employed by a site owner on his site. When he features content-with-cookies from a different advertiser on his site ( using banners/ads/modules) we refer to it as a 'third-party cookies'. Third-party cookies create an opportunity for advertisers to track your browsing pattern across websites.
Imagine you visit the website www.myexample.com. It contains advertisements from the website www.i-track-you.com. When you visit the site a cookie will be set. Now let's assume you visit the website www.exampleshop.com which also features banners from www.i-track-you.com. Another cookie is set. Eventually, the advertiser can collect the cookie data and build a browsing history of your behavior across all websites that have employed his ads. This can give a very indicative clue about your interests and online behavior.
What can you do about this?
You can install the Clear-Flash-Cookies add-on available for Firefox Browser.
Bang-bang let's kill some bad guys!
image source
This extension is used to chase and delete harmful Super-cookies. Specifically, it looks for the tracking cookies known as LSOs (Local Shared Objects). They are especially nasty, as they store a large amount of data on your device and cannot be removed like normal cookies.
Clear-Flash-Cookies will not effect your browsing speed, not even your browser. Much rather it finds the well-hidden location on your hard drive where these trolls are located, and removes them - after you finish your browsing session.
The configuration of Clear-Flash-Cookies is super easy and works without changing the default settings. Just install it and restart Firefox. After successful deployment, it will clean the LSOs automatically after you finish surfing and close your Browser.
Get yours here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clear-flash-cookies
Additional info: This Add-on is a new alternative to the BetterPrivacy legacy extension which is no longer compatible with the new Firefox Quantum. If you are still using an old version of Firefox I recommend the BetterPrivacy add-on as it has a proven track record.
More Articles like this:
Do you want know about Google alternatives?(Read article)
Do you want to know how to protect yourself from browser tracking? (Read article)
- Nick ( @cryptonik ) -
Great Thanks the post was very helpful I had problem removing cookies Dankee dearie
No problem, always ready to help ;)
Thanks hey
thanks for this post
You are welcome :)
Thank you for this, the information is very useful, i will ge it! And I followed you!
Cheers! :)
Im so paranoid about add-ons and extensions these days Nik. I have a suspicion about "ghostery" that it might be doing more spying that hindering the spies
Arthur, I understand you.
Trust is the weakest point of any social system. In this case I have to trust that the company/add-on is operating for a good cause. When you have Open-Source software, you can guarantee this to be the case. Everyone can look at the code in it's entirety and a software developer can verify that there is no sneaky shit hidden.
This add-on is not open source, but it pledges to remove the nastiest of cookies. I find it repulsive that these trackers get stored on your own hard drive.
In previous articles I referred to Ghostery and Startpage and recommended them. They are also not Open-source. This is not ideal, however I'd rather have them handle my data than the trackers they are getting rid off. Again an issue of trust.
I have found no reason to believe that Ghostery is compromised or attempting to forward data to third parties. Indeed it provides insight into trackers that are already always present, but not visible otherwise.
The official Ghostery page 1,452 positive reviews amounting to 4.5 stars, if it is any indication of authenticity.
However, you are expressing a valid concern which I cannot refute with 100% certainty.
I miss having a chat with you Arthur, anyway to connect in your post-fb days? Perhaps on discord?
@cryptonik thanks for such a brief Post ! informative
Brief is in the eye of the beholder...I guess. Thanks!
This post is sponsored by @appreciator in collaboration with #steemitbloggers. Keep up the good work
Wow, now that is just amazing! Thank you for the support @appreciator and I am proud to be part of the #steemitbloggers ❤️
Fantastic advice! Thank you for telling us about the "Clear Flash Cookies " add-on for Firefox! I am going to get it now! 😊
No problem, just let it do it's work and don't let the trackers get the best of you ;)
Thanks @kafkanarchy84 once again for a resteem of a worthy post :)
@cryptonik thanks for bringing this up, I think a lot of people need to think about their data and how marketing companies deal with it, since nowadays the most social and business apps are marketing apps for good or bad, I think people need to talk about privacy and data mining, have you checked out https://privacytools.io
Thank you for the love @kafkanarchy84 <3
I appreciate your support @j3dy. I want people to be aware and spread the knowledge about privacy and security on the web. It is something I am very passionate about. Thank you for the link, it looks great and I will explore it further! :)
@cryptonik, I've found your post to be worthy of a resteem and upvote from me. I'm an actual person and I am doing this on behalf of the Resteem - Upvote movement. Join the movement, read about it here: https://steemit.com/grassroots/@jackmiller/the-resteem-and-upvote-movement-you-can-make-a-big-difference
Wow! That is super cool, I appreciate it! :)
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