Blocking permanent cookies in 2.46/2.48

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dumpster_danny
Posts: 19
Joined: May 29th, 2014, 4:15 am

Blocking permanent cookies in 2.46/2.48

Post by dumpster_danny »

I have blocked permanent cookies with following settings:

Code: Select all

Edit
  Preferences
    Privacy & Security 
      [x] Tell websites that I do not want to be tracked
    Cookies
      Cookie Acceptance Policy
        [x] Allow cookies for the originating website only (no third-party cookies)
      Cookie Retention Policy
        [x] Accept for current session only
This is why I was surprised to notice that my data manager is full of permanent ad/tracking cookies despite these settings. Is there something I am missing? Shouldn't Cookie Retention Policy I have selected block all permanent cookies, without a need to clear all the cookies separately on exit? It might be though, that I have temporarily allowed all cookies to make some website work properly, and then maybe forgot this setting on for a while. Is it possible to see when a specific cookie has been saved into my profile?

In 2.48 there seems to be Prevent tracking activities by known sites -option too. Is this to block specifically tracking cookies?
Anonymosity
Posts: 8779
Joined: May 7th, 2007, 12:07 pm

Re: Blocking permanent cookies in 2.46/2.48

Post by Anonymosity »

What I do is default to blocking cookies and allow only those that I need. I have Cookie Monster installed to make it easy to switch cookie permissions for new sites.
TPR75
Posts: 1352
Joined: July 25th, 2011, 8:11 am
Location: Poland

Re: Blocking permanent cookies in 2.46/2.48

Post by TPR75 »

Anonymosity wrote:What I do is default to blocking cookies and allow only those that I need. I have Cookie Monster installed to make it easy to switch cookie permissions for new sites.
Cookie Monster is not available:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... e-monster/

I have latest version (1.3.4.8) with some improvements:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14714447
(you know that but this info is for other users)

I hope SeaMonkey 2.49.x will work with it because there is no replacement so far. At least I don't know about any...
--
frg
Posts: 1361
Joined: December 15th, 2015, 1:20 pm

Re: Blocking permanent cookies in 2.46/2.48

Post by frg »

> I hope SeaMonkey 2.49.x will work with it because there is no replacement so far. At least I don't know about any...

Even 2.48 will work. I have not seen this problem with 2.48. Probably some old cookies or new ones which are not third party. If they are new they should all have a session expiration date.

Blow them all away at once with the old cookie manager and see if they come back:
chrome://communicator/content/permissions/cookieViewer.xul

Also check if you have set explicit settings for cookies for some sites.
dumpster_danny
Posts: 19
Joined: May 29th, 2014, 4:15 am

Re: Blocking permanent cookies in 2.46/2.48

Post by dumpster_danny »

Anonymosity wrote:What I do is default to blocking cookies and allow only those that I need.
I have two different profiles - loose and strict - and in latter one I have set all cookies blocked by default, allowing only those I need. Sometimes I find it more convenient though to wander around without having to worry about malfunctioning sites due to cookie restrictions, and for that a profile that allows sessions cookies is handy.
frg wrote:Probably some old cookies or new ones which are not third party. If they are new they should all have a session expiration date.
Each of them has a session expiration date. But even if they were not third party ones, they shouldn't be there due to [x] Accept for current session only, right?
frg wrote:Blow them all away at once with the old cookie manager and see if they come back:
chrome://communicator/content/permissions/cookieViewer.xul

Also check if you have set explicit settings for cookies for some sites.
Thanks for the old cookie manager hint, I have been wondering if there is more convenient way to delete multiple cookies than one-by-one from Data manager, or simply by removing cookies.sqlite file. I should not have any explicit cookie settings for sites in this profile.

I will remove them and check now and then if they will reappear.
frg
Posts: 1361
Joined: December 15th, 2015, 1:20 pm

Re: Blocking permanent cookies in 2.46/2.48

Post by frg »

> Each of them has a session expiration date. But even if they were not third party ones, they shouldn't be there due to [x] Accept for current session only, right?

No they are there for the current session then and will be deleted when you close the browser. Advertizers seem to find new and intresting ways to sneak them in as first party too. In my case it won't do them any good because I don't need to junk recommended to me but if it makes them happy and they think they are the kings of the hill...

> Thanks for the old cookie manager hint,

I put it in my bookmarks toolbar. Thought about putting it back into the ui but I should rather find the time to enhance Data Manager instead :)

I occasionally check and if I see ones from known advertizing domains I block it.
dumpster_danny
Posts: 19
Joined: May 29th, 2014, 4:15 am

Re: Blocking permanent cookies in 2.46/2.48

Post by dumpster_danny »

frg wrote:Advertizers seem to find new and intresting ways to sneak them in as first party too. In my case it won't do them any good because I don't need to junk recommended to me but if it makes them happy and they think they are the kings of the hill...
In my case there wouldn't be any short-term benefit - or harm - either as I block most online ads with Adblock Plus anyway. The other issue is privacy aspect of it, like behavior and browsing history tracking, which - even if anonymized - is something I don't want to participate.
dumpster_danny
Posts: 19
Joined: May 29th, 2014, 4:15 am

Re: Blocking permanent cookies in 2.46/2.48

Post by dumpster_danny »

dumpster_danny wrote:Is it possible to see when a specific cookie has been saved into my profile?
I got curious enough to see the creation and last access times of these cookies from cookies.sqlite. It seems that I have got total 365 cookies from 65 different hosts in three minutes, between 12:13 and 12:15 at 24th July, 2017. None of these cookies is accessed after that. The only site (baseDomain) on them I remember visiting recently is Amazon S3. There are cookies from a3cloud.net and amazon-adsystem.com.

This confirms my gut feeling that these cookies appeared suddenly, not within a long period of time. And that I was still using 2.46. Most probably I have changed my Cookie Retention Policy to accept all cookies when testing some site, like Amazon S3, and then these cookies have sneaked in.
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