[LINK] RFI: Intrusive Internet Mechanisms

[rene]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2010 22:02:21 +0000, Pilcher, Fred wrote:

> Kim wrote:
>
>> I was going to say, I think you need to do this on the
>> \flashplayer\ directory not just the \sys\ directory.  Flash stores
>> it's cookies through various directories under the \flashplayer\
>> directory.
>>
>
> Apologies in advance if this has already been covered - but isn't the
> simple answer, at least for Firefox users, to install the Better
> Privacy plugin, which deals with Flash cookies?

The Better Privacy plugin may be considered good enough by many Firefox 
users - whether it is really depends on any particular user's 
privacy/security preferences. 

The main difference between the two methods is:

* the Better Privacy plugin allows all Flash cookies to be created/stored, 
then deletes them when the Firefox browser is shut down.

* making the relevant flash directories read-only prevents creation/storage 
of flash cookies in the first place.

It appears to me that possibly just deleting flash cookies on browser shut 
down might not be adequate in terms of completely preventing tracking, 
depending on what any given flash cookie reads/stores and how much effort 
the business/es etc that use the cookie put into re-identifying/tracking 
computers/people. Also there seems to be an issue of potential data 
matching across sites during the day/period before Firefox is shut down.

On the other hand though, some commentaries about flash cookies say that 
some sites store user login details and/or game playing settings in flash 
cookies. If a particular user uses sites like that and wants to allow flash 
cookies for that purpose, then making the flash directories read only is 
impractial, whereas the Better Privacy plugin apparently enables the user 
to specify particular sites whose flash cookies are not to be deleted on 
browser shut down.

There's probably other pros and cons of the two methods also. 

In my case, I rarely use Firefox (mainly Opera) and I haven't come across 
any site that uses flash cookies for storing any info that is necessary or 
would be helpful/useful to me. So I've stopped the creation of flash 
cookies in the first place.

Irene