Cookie Control

[DrJ]

I currently have AnalogX Cookie wall(it stopped working after a couple days) and Maxa Cookie Manager($35.00 and it stopped working after a few minutes). Now, everything else on my computer works flawlessly, exept these. Is there a cookie control program anywhere that works(without stopping) on Win 7 ? I really do not want to be tracked by any corperate anybody, with or without my knowledge or consent.

[kendall.a]

If you use Firefox (and I suspect all modern browsers) you can control this yourself using the options within the browser itself. In Firefox, go to tools, options, then privacy. Under privacy, you can decide whether to accept third party cookies or not and then there is a drop-down where you can decide how long you want to keep them. One of the settings is "keep them until Firefox closes".

[DrJ]

I have Firefox and with an addon it also controls LSO's but does not support Cannon Easy Web Printing or HP Smart Web Printing. I use Cannon Easy Web Printing daily with IE8. I do not understand why both of the cookie control programs failed and I doubt I can recover my money from Maxa. So the question remains, are there any cookie control programs out there that work ? I can't find my own, so I doubt I can help with yours.

[Sope]

You could try manually setting the control of cookies in IE8 :-
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...-allow-cookies

Block LSO's using the Flash Player Global Privacy Settings panel

You can use CCleaner regularly to remove any cookies (including LSO's) that may be residing on your PC.

[DrJ]

Thanks ! I thought Flash was either on/off. I have been going into the IE cookie folder and deleting them as I go, but that is rather time consuming. There are a lot of cookie control programs that do not work with win7, but only the two listed, that don't work. that do. With all the hype I read about privacy, even legislation pending, I am astonished that the market isn't flooded with solutions. Anyway, thanks again for your help.

[kendall.a]

I'm sorry, but I just don't understand the preoccupation with cookies. They are simply text files. They, in and of themselves are not dangerous. Cookies are not a program, or a plug-in. They cannot be used as a virus, and they cannot access your hard drive.

A very interesting read, though, somewhat dated:

http://www.cookiecentral.com/faq/

[Concerned User]

Have you tried an addon like cs lite which blocks all cookies by default and only allows the cookies that you choose?. :

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cs-lite/

Like Kendall said, cookies are not dangerous, just simple text files.... Don't get taken in by the hype about security and privacy....

[DrJ]

I accept that some cookies may be harmless. Others are intended to collect information about users buying/viewing/surfing habits. Some may see this as harmless, I view it as invasive at the very least. In addition, I suspect that some moniter more than just buying/... habits. At the Flash Player Global Pricacy Settings site I set everything to 0 storage, do not accept, never accept, one tab after another and left the site thinking that was that. I later went back and discovered everything had been set back to the settings that I found them at the first time I went there. I did this several times and each time it did the same thing. I have a flash cookie moniter and it continued to report flash cookies after each change I made. Eventually I disabled Flash in IE and still I occasionally get a flash cookie. Any way, just as these sites insist on putting them on my computer I insist on removing them.

[Sope]

Under the circumstances you may find some useful information contained in the following article recently posted by rhiannon on the main site :-
http://www.techsupportalert.com/cont...nd-add-ons.htm

Unfortunately most of the privacy related addons etc. are not available for IE (which I see is your preferred browser due to it's compatability with you chosen printer software). However, I'm sure you could find a satisfactory way of printing web content using Chrome or Firefox for example. Indeed, will a little research you may well be able to find additional addons/extensions for both which offer extra printing features similar to those you currently use.

Of course another option would be to do all your surfing using Sandboxie and set it to delete all contents automatically when you close your browser. That way, every time you shut down your browser all traces of anything that was written to your computer during that session will be deleted.

PS. I agree with the others comments that cookies are not necessarily worth getting too paranoid about. Just because you block/clear cookies doesn't mean you are anonymous on the internet, far from it in fact!

[DrJ]

Are you saying that inside of Sandboxie the cookies are invisible to the agencies that put them there, as I move from site to site ? Anonymity is not the issue, I think privacy is what I'm trying to achieve.