Flash Cookies: Hidden Menace?
I am very concerned about privacy online. If I am using my computer at home, I dutifully clean out my cache from time to time and clean out my cookies on a regular basis. If I am using a computer at an internet cafe, I will do it when I first start using the computer and once again when I am completely finished. Just to be sure, I’ll even shut down the browser. I am so concerned about online privacy that I use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.
I thought that I was taking proper precautions, but I thought wrong. I never knew that Flash, the browser plugin that powers many web applications, stores cookies of its own. I never even gave it a thought, but when I decided to check out my Flash settings, boy did I get a surprise. Dozens of websites that I have visited since I built this computer had stored flash cookies within the flash application folder. That means that those websites could track my visits to them on a regular basis. I find that just freaky. These aren’t the cookies you can delete inside your privacy settings in your browser, these are separate.
If you are like me, you don’t like having cookies that stay forever on your computer. While Adobe Flash doesn’t advertise that Flash stores cookies and they don’t make it well known how to change your Flash settings, it is relatively easy to clean out Flash cookies.
Here’s how you do it:
Visit http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html. This is where you can adjust many Flash settings, but we are interested primarily in the Flash cookies.
On this page, you’ll see something that looks like this:
Scroll through the list and you can see the literally dozens of sites that put these Flash cookies on your hard drive. Sites like Google Adwords, Youtube and Paypal are there along with sites you might never remember visiting. Freaky, isn’t it?
Now it’s time to delete these cookies. This is the easiest part, just click on the button that says Delete all sites and the cookies vanish and your computer is once again clean.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Wow, thanks for the tip - I just did it! I always clear my cache a couple of times each day (I work on a lot of pages that just clog up my temporary folder), but never thought about Flash.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I cleaned my computer and then sent the link to this post to all the computer-users from my address book. Thank you!!!
November 17th, 2008 at 4:57 am
you guys are wimps cookies are used to store and monitor information when a computer accesses a site. it is designed for security so that the information cant be used for malicious purposes, and used for convenience so that you can have a shopping cart when you go to a site instead of having to memorize a set of information yourself and type each product data number in on your own the thought that java cookies much less any other cookies can be used to steal information or track your movements is preposterous, there is no overlord of the internet who can track your movements and the only real way to tell where you have been is on your computer if you actually fear someone knowing what you are doing online you need better security for your house, not deleting the cookies on your computer because it is easier to steal your passport than your credit card number with cookies and frankly with the way that cookies work if you are more vulnerable to fraud and identity theft because you have to retype your information multiple times instead of it being stored in a well secured fire walled encrypted server. you are tossing away your convenience for the fake piece of mind it gives you, security cameras are for your safety, cookies are for you to be more efficient, and if anyone could steal from you using cookies you would already be broke and for some malicious reason signed up to receive a few very large bills and one postcard from a cocky hacker on a beach somewhere.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:02 am
Oh, and stop emailing everyone in your address book with useless stuff, it pisses them off more than spam cause they actually think its important and then they learn that you are a nutter.