More than half of the internet’s top websites use a little known capability of Adobe’s Flash plugin to track users and store information about them, but only four of them mention the so-called Flash Cookies in their privacy policies, UC Berkeley researchers reported Monday.
Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.
What’s even sneakier?
Several services even use the surreptitious data storage to reinstate traditional cookies that a user deleted, which is called ‘re-spawning’ in homage to video games where zombies come back to life even after being “killed,” the report found. So even if a user gets rid of a website’s tracking cookie, that cookie’s unique ID will be assigned back to a new cookie again using the Flash data as the “backup.”
Even the whitehouse.gov showed up in the report, with researchers reporting they found a Flash cookie with the name “userId.” The site does say in its privacy policy that it uses tracking technology but it does not mention Flash or tell users how to get rid of the Flash cookie.
Net privacy is simply a personal hygiene standard. The health and welfare benefits attributable to a zero footprint browsing experience, are dubious.
>Whats this got to do with Darth Vader?
He couldn’t even recognize his own droids.
[It's a pic of a Vader COOKIE.]
Yea, that’s why I didn’t ask what’s the cookie have to do with it.
CCleaner has been on my systems for years. Never heard of Better Privacy. Thanks.
Articles like this give me a chance to reminisce about the innocent days of yore when we first heard of cookies and just assumed they were evil.
Of course, we flamed ANYone who tried to make money on the internet.
Oh, how we laughed and played back then…
I’ve been using ccleaner forever, as well. Send a few bucks their way. Use the registry cleaner option as well, it’s amazing how much loose garbage gets left there, even a fresh Windows build ends up with loose threads. And while you’re at it, check out how fragmented a freshly built Windows drive looks….
Sorry, getting off topic a little. It’s frustrating how much privacy can be lost by simply not performing “routine maintenance”. Can you imagine how much privacy will be lost if we move everything to ‘the cloud’?!
I installed better privacy: thanks. I left the settings as are. They can install the cookie. I can use the web site and when I leave the cookie goes byby.