Flash cookies: What's new with online privacy

[Flash]

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/secur ... ag=nl.e036

... Flash cookies use the extension .sol. Knowing that, I still wasn’t able to find any on my computer. Thanks to Google (uses Flash cookies), I determined the only way you can access information about resident Flash cookies is by going to Flash Player’s Web site. ...

Of course, all this only applies to Windows. Are Flash cookies being stored in Puppy? If so, where? If not, perhaps that explains at least some of the trouble Flash causes in Puppy.

[OlddogNewtricks]

Hi Flash, it's a hidden folder in root generated by flash player named .macromedia. If you haven't got one already just play a youtube video then have a look. You can delete the folder manually, create a script to delete the folder with one click i.e.
rm -rf /root/.macromedia
or there is a firefox addon for dealing with it, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

It's just more spyware.

[OlddogNewtricks]

Just remembered the addon it's called Better Privacy.

[dogone]

Hi Flash, it's a hidden folder in root generated by flash player named .macromedia. If you haven't got one already just play a youtube video then have a look. You can delete the folder manually, create a script to delete the folder...

Here's my solution. Just employ Pschedule to run this script periodically. The log file will prove very interesting reading:

##!/bin/sh
##remove root flash cookies
##if found, timestamp and log stdout and stderr (note order of arguments)
#if [ -d /root/.macromedia/* ];
# then
# echo >> /root/fc_log #start a new line
# date >> /root/fc_log #datestamp entry
# rm -rv /root/.macromedia/* >> /root/fc_log 2<&1
# else
# touch /root/fc_log # else just update log access time
#fi

[Billwho?]

I went for a slightly different fix that is always in operation but does not require a script.
See This post for details.

[aarf]

http://www.macromedia.com/support/docum ... ger07.html

[puppyite]

Before you make your choices in the Flash Settings Manager you may delete all files with the .sol extension in both Puppy and / or Windows.

After you make your choices in the Flash Settings Manager make note of the settings.sol file date and then periodically do a search for it and all .sol files to satisfy yourself that nothing has been changed or added.

On my PC's after I deleted all the .sol files in Windows I checked Puppy and found none but settings.sol which (as the name implies) stores the setting choices.

Note: I don't visit You(Boob)Tube.com. If I want to watch something moronic on video I turn on my 35" RCA CRT TV. YMMV.

[rupert589]

Web site hosts and advertisers do not like relying on HTTP cookies. Users have figured out how to avoid them. According to Bruce Schneier, Web site developers now have a better way. It’s still considered a cookie, yet it’s different.
* Flash cookies can hold a lot more data, up to 100 Kilobytes. A standard HTTP cookie is only 4 Kilobytes.
* Flash cookies have no expiration date by default.
* Flash cookies are stored in different locations, making them difficult to find.

[johnjudd]

Flash cookies can also back up the data that is stored in a regular cookie. When you delete cookies using your browser controls, your Flash cookies are not affected. So a website that served a cookie to you may recognise you on your next visit if it backed up its now-deleted cookie data to a Flash cookie.

[benali72]

Thanks for this excellent thread. I also learned a lot by reading the users' Reviews of the Firefox BetterPrivacy Add-on.

It makes me angry that companies use their greater technological expertise to violate the privacy of their users and customers in this way.

Thank goodness for free tools like BetterPrivacy.

[smokey01]

Is there a way to read the contents of a flash cookie?

I tried to open it as text and that didn't work.

[DavidMcCann]

One poster mentioned the online Flash settings manager. It doesn't work, at least for me. It creates a file in .adobe that sets the size of the cookie cash, so theoretically setting it to zero should solve the problem. But I found that cookies were still being stored, in either of

~/macromedia/Flash_Player/#SharedObjects
~/macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys

If you make these directories read-only, that stops the cookies, but a few sites no longer work.

The settings manager also enables you to deactivate Flash's ability to turn on your webcam and microphone. They are watching: be afraid, be very afraid ...

[snowshaker]

The settings manager also enables you to deactivate Flash's ability to turn on your webcam and microphone. They are watching: be afraid, be very afraid ...

Heh. I wish I could activate my laptops webcam under puppy but have been unable to ID the right drivers, so I doubt that a robot script could come in and get me. They can identify my OS and browser, but now they have to send me the right drivers.

[nooby]

Very interesting thread.

They are that determined to know what youtube video one look at.

What about the coming thing? HTLM5 which should be able to play everything Flash without a Flash player?

Will they have an even more clever way to collect data on my habit to listen to Johnny Cash "I walk the Line"