We have all heard about cookies in the web browser. You know the handy little bits of data websites can leave behind to remember your login details or favorite settings when you return next time? A few years ago there was a big discussion on whether these cookies should be allowed since they can be used to track users and their browsing habits, something many felt was a privacy invasion. Therefore web browser got tools to easily manage these cookies, web developers started to inform their users how their cookies were used and soon all was well on the internet again.
However, what many people don’t know is that “baddies” such as advertisers, spyware distributers and other shady websites quickly found a way to get around these issues using something virtually everyone has installed - Adobe Flash.
Before we move on, have a look at what is stored on your computer by visiting Adobe’s Website Storage Panel. Prepare to be amazed by how many websites have saved information about you. But what is this and why should you care?
Flash supports something known as Local Shared Objects which is the Flash equivalent of cookies. However, instead of the normal 4 kb limitation on cookies, their size can be up to 100 kb. They never expire, they will never be deleted automatically and by default they don’t have to ask for your permission to save all this data. To make things even worse, there is no easy way to delete them yourself; browsers are not aware that they exist so clearing cookies and history doesn’t help and Adobe has hidden the settings in a Flash app deep down on their website.
Doesn’t sound too good, does it? Fortunately you can delete individual cookies using the Website Storage Panel you tried out before or permanently disable them by going to the Global Storage Settings Panel and making sure the checkbox next to Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer is not ticked.
Now, the catch is that some of these bits of data actually serves a purpose and are in many cases used for good, such as reducing loading times of flash applications, so banning them may not be an ideal solution. Therefore we decided to update Cocktail to delete these cookies when you clear your internet caches. This will be enabled by default but you can change the settings by going to Preferences - Caches - Internet where you can also choose if it should clear only yours or every user’s cookies.
These features are available today in the latest version of Cocktail (Snow Leopard Edition) and within the week we’ll add support for it in the Leopard Edition too. Why don’t you go check it out?
However, what many people don’t know is that “baddies” such as advertisers, spyware distributers and other shady websites quickly found a way to get around these issues using something virtually everyone has installed - Adobe Flash.
Before we move on, have a look at what is stored on your computer by visiting Adobe’s Website Storage Panel. Prepare to be amazed by how many websites have saved information about you. But what is this and why should you care?
Flash supports something known as Local Shared Objects which is the Flash equivalent of cookies. However, instead of the normal 4 kb limitation on cookies, their size can be up to 100 kb. They never expire, they will never be deleted automatically and by default they don’t have to ask for your permission to save all this data. To make things even worse, there is no easy way to delete them yourself; browsers are not aware that they exist so clearing cookies and history doesn’t help and Adobe has hidden the settings in a Flash app deep down on their website.
Doesn’t sound too good, does it? Fortunately you can delete individual cookies using the Website Storage Panel you tried out before or permanently disable them by going to the Global Storage Settings Panel and making sure the checkbox next to Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer is not ticked.
Now, the catch is that some of these bits of data actually serves a purpose and are in many cases used for good, such as reducing loading times of flash applications, so banning them may not be an ideal solution. Therefore we decided to update Cocktail to delete these cookies when you clear your internet caches. This will be enabled by default but you can change the settings by going to Preferences - Caches - Internet where you can also choose if it should clear only yours or every user’s cookies.
These features are available today in the latest version of Cocktail (Snow Leopard Edition) and within the week we’ll add support for it in the Leopard Edition too. Why don’t you go check it out?
You were right about Adobe burying the settings manager. I have tried to get there from adobe.com and cannot find it. Why would they do this?
Posted by: Richard Styers | January 20, 2010 at 08:26 PM
For those of us still using Tiger, would you be kind enough to at least let us know the path to where these Local Shared Objects are stored (under Tiger) so that we may delete them manually? Or point us to a URL where this information may be found?
Thanks!
Posted by: Sonic Purity | January 20, 2010 at 08:37 PM
Sonic Purity, here are the paths:
~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#SharedObjects/
and
~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/macromedia.com/support/
Posted by: Bartender | January 20, 2010 at 09:43 PM
Thanks for adding that to Cocktail. I have tried over and over to set Adobe's Global Storage Settings Panel to never allow third party flash content, but the settings don't "stick" and I end up with flash cookies every time I check.
Posted by: Karen | January 22, 2010 at 02:31 AM