Collusion: A browser addon to demo how websites track you online

Re:Collusion: A browser addon to demo how websites track you... by there on Friday July 08, 2011 @12:52AM (#2741330)

i used to browse with firefox's cookie prompting on, so every time i would visit a new site, i'd have to manually allow it to set cookies. i'd usually deny them for everything and only allow certain sites to set cookies, to avoid tracking like this site is describing. denying cookies broke quite a few sites and the prompt became annoying.

now i just browse with cookies enabled, but the "keep until" setting is "i close firefox". now every time i close firefox, all the transient tracking cookies and other bullshit are erased. for sites that i actually want to stay logged into, like hacker news, or that need to store long-term cookies for authentication like banking sites, i use the "cookie monster" add-on and just click its icon in the corner and tell it to allow cookies for the current site and no other 3rd party hosts. my current firefox cookie list is small, and only has cookies for sites that i know about.

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Re:Collusion: A browser addon to demo how websites track you... by ck2 on Friday July 08, 2011 @04:26AM (#2741674)

Just cookies isn't enough - there is DOM storage and LSOs - install "better privacy" plugin to delete other nonsense on browser shutdown (or every X hours).

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Re:Collusion: A browser addon to demo how websites track you... by there on Friday July 08, 2011 @08:17AM (#2742111)

yes, i'm already using that, along with flashblock.

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Re:Collusion: A browser addon to demo how websites track you... by pwg on Friday July 08, 2011 @04:57AM (#2741720)

Give the "Cookie Monster" extension a try. You can browse with a default "no-accept-cookies" policy, but at browse time decide to (based upon the domains of the cookies):

1) temporarily allow cookies from some domains; 2) permanently allow cookies from some domains.

Gradually you can build up a whitelist of just only those sites where you will allow cookies, even while blocking their own advertisers/trackers from setting cookies, while keeping everything else off.

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Re:Collusion: A browser addon to demo how websites track you... by there on Friday July 08, 2011 @10:31AM (#2742540)

did you read my comment? i'm using cookie monster.

blocking by default and only allowing the current domain breaks quite a few sites that refuse to work without an active session cookie. some break subtly and some throw you into a redirection loop. that is why i accept all by default, but firefox marks them as session cookies so they don't survive across browsing sessions, and using cookie monster i whitelist a few domains.

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Re:Collusion: A browser addon to demo how websites track you... by retube on Friday July 08, 2011 @05:32AM (#2741776)

I take a simpler approach. Just deny all third-party cookies, allow them for current host.

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