Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Adobe's invasion of privacy

I came across this TechSurvivors thread. Any comments?

Indeed, the problem is that Flash sets its own (non-HTML) cookies that you don't remove when flushing your browser's HTML cookies. I learned about this reading the MacWorld article: Study: Adobe Flash cookies pose vexing privacy questions. Note the link to the online Flash Player Settings Manager applet towards the end of the article.

Scary stuff, and annoying to realize how long this has been going on with most people unaware.

The MacInTouch site is also reporting on this today in their Security section.

I just downloaded Flush and deleted those cookies. In addition, I went to Flash Player Help and opted to Always Deny cookies. I don't use a camera or microphone but 99 cookies were flushed.

I just did as Jon did.

Now I wonder what will happen when/should I (re)visit the sites that planted the nefarious cookies in the first place. I suppose those bad cookies will return, is that right?

Maybe "always deny" means what it says? The proof is in the pudding.

I thought that I read that the problem was not browser cookies, but FLASH cookies, that adobe was using on its own, and that are not cleared when you clear your browser's cache or cookies?

That's right. When I said "always deny", I was referring to Adobe's settings, not anything within Safari.

Now I'm (even more) confused-

Is the understanding that "Always Deny" means:
1. one can no longer get to the site
2. you can get there, but it might not load/work as it otherwise would
3. you can get there, the site loads as designed, but the site will be unable to deposit any cookies

Sorry for being such a dolt-

I interpret that as #3.

Which is also very likely to prevent the site from working correctly if at all which would make #2 operative instead of #3.

This isn't an option for many of us with online accounts at banks and similar organizations which make use of Flash cookies as part of their login procedures.

(And, just for the record, this issue surfaced several months ago at MFIF in the thread Adobe web site settings.)

Thanks for the heads up about banks. I modified my settings to Always Ask.

Jon, I feel kind of stupid asking this question, but... I do have Flash Player but cannot find it as an application that I can launch and check the Help menu. I only seem to unearth the plugin using Spotlight but not the actual app. Where is it hiding?
P.S. I also used Flush and it mentioned a removed cookie from BofA (my bank). However, when I opened the bookmarked site, nothing seemed to be changed. Hopefully, you are right about option 3.

There is no actual Flash application. It resides in /Library/Internet Plugins/Flash Player.plugin. In my system, and in the same location, I also have flashplayer.xpt but I don't know what it does.

I also opened BofA to access my account. The only thing unusual (and not all that unusual) is that it asked to authenticate with some personal information that I had previously provided (as a security measure) before it allowed me to enter my password. I was not asked to allow any cookies.

So, how does one get the Flash Help menu? OK, got it: it is directly on the web site in your link. I chose "always ask".

Update. Adobe through Flash not only puts cookies on the computer but allows certain sites to "store information on your computer" (looks like these are not cookies because it was after I used Flush). This is accessed through Flash settings referred to as above; one should check them all. Now I put "always deny" there. They have an option of making the space for a site as "none' (no space available).

Alex,

Take a look at Flash Player Help: Website Storage Settings panel. There are are links to other settings and I not only don't pretend to understand it but I don't know the consequences of the different settings. Perhaps Tacit could chime in with his usual plain-English explanations for the rest of us.

For the record, I got this from Post # 13 in this TechSurvivors thread

That's where I went after having seen your post. Now, when I put "always deny", some Flash sites stopped working. I guess, "always ask" is the right thing.
P.S. I love your title there!
P.P.S. Congratulations on the first 100 posts!!!