Cookies - A Complete Guide

I wonder how many of you knew that Adobe Flash has "hidden cookies"? I just found out about this by reading the article in the link below.
http://www.imasuper.com/66/technology/flas...privacy-killer/

A couple additions for those who have interest in cookies. There are a couple new breeds out there since this was written.

For those interested do a google for flash cookies and the latest privacy threat ever cookies.

I was reading an article on the Wall Street Journal's website, here: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/07/30/lawsuit-tackles-files-that-re-spawn-tracking-cookies/
regarding a lawsuit against a number of companies who use these "flash cookies" or the Local Shared Object (LSO) cookies through Adobe Flash Player, because they can "re-spawn" (or recreate) these cookies after you've deleted them, without your knowledge?? After reading that article, I wanted to learn more about it so I came here because I always come to this site first for any questions I have. So, here goes!

Since this thread was started, is there much more information than the links already posted here regarding flash cookies? Is there any programs that can remove them? Better yet, any programs that remove them and prevent them from "re-spawning"? Any chance there might be a new, quick & easy way to delete them? By quick & easy, I mean something similar to deleting browsing history through IE via Tools/Internet Options...a few clicks, and you're done.


For some reason I get really irked reading about all of the tracking that goes on, the more I read the more annoyed I get. "Regular" cookies are okay, the ones I can easily delete if I so choose, I'm visiting someone else's site so I look at it as somewhat of a give & take situation. But it's the stuff that isn't well known, or is hidden and sneaky, those really annoy me. Like the above flash cookies information, as well as stuff like device fingerprinting, etc.

Edited by carissa_lee_, 28 January 2011 - 08:20 AM.

This guide is very informative. thanks alot for this post.

Thanks to share this valuable information...Yes Cookies are very useful things of internet through browser....

thanks for the post... nice and usefull information in a simple way ... thank you ...keep posting such usefull information....

Great article that is the easiest explanation I have seen to date.  I would add that even if you think you have deleted all the cookies, there still may be ghosts in your browser.  It may be necessary to repeat the process from time-to-time, just to be certain you are gettng everything.  And yes, registry cleaners are good at getting everything the first time and helping you maintain that level of confidence. 

Hey guys:

I hope this is posted in the right area? Forgive me if not. Anyway, can I delete cookies and history from an AOL browser on my iPad Air?? I've done some looking around and haven't seen much that covers this topic.

Thanks

Edited by jwmghf, 29 January 2015 - 10:05 PM.

Why not just get rid of the entire AOL browser? Can't think of a good reason for having that.

I'll agree with buddy. The AOL Browser have been discontinued around 8 years ago. There's no valid reason to use it anymore. There was a thread this week where a user couldn't download a file using the browser, but managed to download it just fine using a modern browser like Google Chrome. Outdated and discontinued web browsers and other programs shouldn't be used anymore since they might not be equipped to accomplish the tasks of today and they can pose a security threat.

Thanks guys. I will forward this to my Aunt!!!

Interesting guide!

Hi all ,
So Im just looking for a bit of confirmation . Please dont give me grief as some may .
So me and my partner have a shared Ipad . I kinda know what cookies and caches are so that not the issue . In the past my partner has used websites that you could say I dont agree with . Thought he stopped all that .
Today the Ipad was being really slow so googled what I could do . It said check and deleted cookies and caches . I went onto website data and at the very top of the list was this website . It said that it had used 266MB ( is this a lot ? ) I thought at first oh must have been a pop up and because I wanted to make sure I checked on the safari history. It wasnt there . I then accessed the site on my phone and checked my cookies to see how much it would have been if it was just a pop up . On my phone it came out as 1.2MB so Im guessing that it wasnt a pop up and hes accessed the website and been on it for a while or more than once to rack it up to 266MB .

Also Our Internet went down for 2 days last week and so used the iPad as a personal hotspot . Was wondering if he used this website on his phone could the data also be stored on the iPad due to
It basically being the hsame WiFi ?

So what Im really looking for is .
266MB means that he most definitely used this website ? And it wasnt a pop up ?

Please dont be mean ... I know some may think Im being paranoid but I just want some answers as I know I wont get the truth if I ask him . Thanks

Welcome to BC purpleunicom....

 

Some comparisons of usage below copied from the web:

 

"1 HOUR" of VIDEO -

240p ~ 150 MB
360p ~ 250 MB
480p ~ 400 MB
720p ~ 800-900 MB
1080p ~ 1.2 -1.4 GB

 

More info: Click on link below for more pertinent info...

How to Reduce the Amount of Data (and Bandwidth) Streaming Services Use

 

 

As you can see, twenty pop music videos at 480P consumed over 400MB of data, which averages out to around 20MB per video.

In the following table, we present our Gangham Style findings. Each video’s observed size is adjusted to include the size of the audio track (as if you were loading each resolution the first time). This isn’t exact nor meant to be official, it’s just a rough idea of the size of an average pop music video with its accompanying audio track.

Video Resolution ~Size + 4MB Audio Track 144P 6.6MB 240P 9.6MB 360P 15.2MB 480P 25.2MB 720P 44.6MB 1080P 73.5MB

 

I use Firefox as my default browser for everything including the software I used in my work.  Recently, a newer work application was rolled out and the data from the older version was ported into the new application.  I was told that the new application runs best with Chrome.  I did not have Chrome on my laptop.  I downloaded Chrome and ran the new application under Chrome.  But the new application is not running correctly under Chrome.  I was told to delete my cookies. 

 

My question is - can the cookies have any effect on the new application since it is running with another browser?   All cookies were created while I used Firefox.  I cleared all data in using tools in Chrome.  Must I also go into Firefox and remove all data also? 

 

I would rather not remove cookies in Firefox because the last time I did that it affected my ability to log into websites that log into often and I had to reenter passwords, etc.  Can someone answer these questions for me?  thanks.

Great info