Hundreds of tracking cookies
December 24, 2018 3:03 AM Subscribe
I don't like tracking cookies, and I take steps to block them. Still, I get hundreds of them, every time I go on the Internet.
Maybe they are harmless, but that's not my question. They bother me, and I want to stop them from installing on my computer. If your answer doesn't tell me how to do that, thanks, but I don't need to see it.
Later versions of CCleaner display a count of how many tracking cookies it removed during a cleaning session. A couple of hours of normal browsing, followed by a CCleaner cleaning, invariably shows hundreds of tracking cookies deleted. I know that there are browser extensions that are advertised to block adware, that are themselves adware, and I think I've avoided them, but I'm not a super power user, and could have been fooled.
Here are the things I've done to try and block tracking cookies:
Set Firefox to block all trackers and all 3rd-party tracking cookies
Ditto for IE
Enabled DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
Installed Ghostery, and set it to block all trackers
Installed Privacy Badger, and set it to block all the known tracking domains
Installed uMatrix, and set it to delete and block cookies
Still, CCleaner finds those multitudes of cookies. What should I do?
Maybe they are harmless, but that's not my question. They bother me, and I want to stop them from installing on my computer. If your answer doesn't tell me how to do that, thanks, but I don't need to see it.
Later versions of CCleaner display a count of how many tracking cookies it removed during a cleaning session. A couple of hours of normal browsing, followed by a CCleaner cleaning, invariably shows hundreds of tracking cookies deleted. I know that there are browser extensions that are advertised to block adware, that are themselves adware, and I think I've avoided them, but I'm not a super power user, and could have been fooled.
Here are the things I've done to try and block tracking cookies:
Set Firefox to block all trackers and all 3rd-party tracking cookies
Ditto for IE
Enabled DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
Installed Ghostery, and set it to block all trackers
Installed Privacy Badger, and set it to block all the known tracking domains
Installed uMatrix, and set it to delete and block cookies
Still, CCleaner finds those multitudes of cookies. What should I do?
Response by poster: Because some site logins are in cookies, and I would rather not have to enter my username and password every time I go to, say, MetaFilter, or tell it that I like the Classic view.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:40 AM on December 24, 2018
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:40 AM on December 24, 2018
Cookie Autodelete gives you several customizable options by domain. By default cookies and localstorage are deleted after you close all windows/tabs for a website but you can whitelist domains you want to allow.
posted by D.C. at 5:04 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by D.C. at 5:04 AM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
In Firefox you can block all cookies outright (or clear them in every browser restart) and whitelist only the sites you need, or you can accept all cookies in the internal settings and use extensions to do the management.
To answer the question as asked: in about:config, setting
What exactly is CCleaner complaining about? Can you paste the output here?
posted by Bangaioh at 5:04 AM on December 24, 2018
To answer the question as asked: in about:config, setting
network.cookie.cookieBehavior to 2 will block all cookies, indexedDB and localstorage. You can whitelist sites by going to the permissions window (Ctrl+I) and overriding the default. I think but I'm not sure that for MeFi that would involve whitelisting every single subdomain. btw you can pick your theme in your profile settings, cookies not needed for thatWhat exactly is CCleaner complaining about? Can you paste the output here?
posted by Bangaioh at 5:04 AM on December 24, 2018
Response by poster: It's not complaining. It's bragging. Like "243 tracking cookies deleted."
If I scan the hard drive using Superantispyware before running CCleaner, SASW might find a tracker or two, but CC will find a bunch right afterward.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:12 AM on December 24, 2018
If I scan the hard drive using Superantispyware before running CCleaner, SASW might find a tracker or two, but CC will find a bunch right afterward.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:12 AM on December 24, 2018
OK, so CCleaner is probably complaining about HSTS pinning, which technically are not cookies so none of the solutions proposed in this thread will help you with that.
It's debatable whether you should be stopping HSTS pinning at all but the main point is that if you're worried about tracking in general, cookies are just one of the many ways you're exposed. The measures you've already taken wrt cookie handling seem reasonable enough, imo (I'd ditch Ghostery and Privacy Badger for uBlock Origin but that's just me)
If you really want to stop HSTS "cookies", go to your Firefox profile folder and empty the file SiteSecurityServiceState.txt then set it read-only. That might stop CCleaner's bragging but I don't use it so can't test it.
posted by Bangaioh at 7:29 AM on December 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's debatable whether you should be stopping HSTS pinning at all but the main point is that if you're worried about tracking in general, cookies are just one of the many ways you're exposed. The measures you've already taken wrt cookie handling seem reasonable enough, imo (I'd ditch Ghostery and Privacy Badger for uBlock Origin but that's just me)
If you really want to stop HSTS "cookies", go to your Firefox profile folder and empty the file SiteSecurityServiceState.txt then set it read-only. That might stop CCleaner's bragging but I don't use it so can't test it.
posted by Bangaioh at 7:29 AM on December 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I'd be skeptical about CCleaner's claims. On Firefox you can go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Cookies & Site Data > Manage Data to see your cookies, then sort by date. If you ran CCleaner only a few hours ago, then you can see how many cookies were actually added since the last run, and compare to how many it thinks it "cleaned" when you run it again.
posted by serathen at 7:30 AM on December 24, 2018
posted by serathen at 7:30 AM on December 24, 2018
ClarissaWAM's suggestion of disabling "trackers and 3rd party cookies" doesn't remove site logins, unless they're managed by 3rd parties like FB.
I'd also keep Privacy Badger and work along with uBlock Origin. They have slightly complementary functions.
posted by scruss at 7:35 AM on December 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'd also keep Privacy Badger and work along with uBlock Origin. They have slightly complementary functions.
posted by scruss at 7:35 AM on December 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Maybe I'm mistaken but I thought ClarissaWAM was saying that ALL cookies = (trackers and 3rd party cookies) + (1st party cookies, which hold the logins, etc).
That was my first assumption as well, that CCleaner was reporting the legitimate 1st party cookies that the OP wants to keep as tracking cookies.
posted by Bangaioh at 7:52 AM on December 24, 2018
That was my first assumption as well, that CCleaner was reporting the legitimate 1st party cookies that the OP wants to keep as tracking cookies.
posted by Bangaioh at 7:52 AM on December 24, 2018
Firefox: Preferences → Privacy → Content Blocking: Choose what to block offers
posted by scruss at 9:47 AM on December 24, 2018
- Trackers
- Third-Party Cookies
posted by scruss at 9:47 AM on December 24, 2018
CCleaner might also be finding Cache trackers. Web sites can serve personalized images that uniquely identify you and are stored in your cache files.
posted by Mitheral at 4:20 PM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Mitheral at 4:20 PM on December 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
cookies are just one of the many ways you're exposed
Adding to this and Mitheral's answer, here's a non-exhaustive list of browser tracking vectors. It's nearly impossible for a web-browsing person to thwart all of them, one must be content with picking the low hanging fruit and leaving it at that.
There's no advantage in going scorched earth on cookies while ignoring javascript and all other, more sophisticated fingerprinting options.
There are, however, many advantages in using content blockers, etc but you're already doing that. Stricter measures may net a bit more privacy with the trade off of ever decreasing convenience.
posted by Bangaioh at 5:54 AM on December 25, 2018
Adding to this and Mitheral's answer, here's a non-exhaustive list of browser tracking vectors. It's nearly impossible for a web-browsing person to thwart all of them, one must be content with picking the low hanging fruit and leaving it at that.
There's no advantage in going scorched earth on cookies while ignoring javascript and all other, more sophisticated fingerprinting options.
There are, however, many advantages in using content blockers, etc but you're already doing that. Stricter measures may net a bit more privacy with the trade off of ever decreasing convenience.
posted by Bangaioh at 5:54 AM on December 25, 2018
If you want to quarantine the biggest tracker of them all, Facebook Container for Firefox runs FB and its associated sites in its own sandbox. It'll log you out of FB the first time you use it, but every time after FB tabs will be running in their own private little world that doesn't share cookies with any other tab.
posted by scruss at 7:24 PM on December 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by scruss at 7:24 PM on December 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
I have a Chrome extension called Edit This Cookie that gives you an easy way to list your cookies. You can delete all cookies from a particular domain, though it also looks like there's a way to block individual cookies or cookies by domain. I haven't tried that feature but it might be worth looking into.
posted by bendy at 4:56 PM on December 29, 2018
posted by bendy at 4:56 PM on December 29, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
Have you tried these steps for your browsers?
https://ruinmysearchhistory.com/blog/how-to-block-cookies-in-all-browsers/
posted by ClarissaWAM at 3:13 AM on December 24, 2018