Flash Cookies

[BOAC]

Courtesy of Tech Republic I have just discovered some disquieting things about these - and I never knew they were 'happening' until today! What's the view here?

When you realise that there can be possibilities for websites to turn on your camera or mic....................................................

I've just installed 'Better Privacy' on Firefox......................

[Keef]

Thanks for the "heads up!"

I took a look at the flash cookies on my PC. Scary!

[Loose rivets]

Can I rely on Cookie Cleaner to zap these?

[BOAC]

I think not - if you are a Firefoxer, Better Privacy can be set to clear them at shutdown. I don't think anything else touches them!

[mad_jock]

In the nicest possible way I really don't think the sites which get up to this sort of nonsense are interested in getting videos of 50 year old plus blokes fiddling with there computers.

Stick a postit note covering the web cam and disable the built in mic and unplug you headset when your not using it.

The remote abuse of webcams has been happening for years.

We used to wind some of the IT's drinking mates up by sending them emails from the helpdesk account with such things as.

"stop picking your nose its un-hygenic and thats a testplant machine"
"could you please move your coffee before you spill it"

Trick was not to use thier machine but one nearby that had them in view.

Then there was the trick of boosting the volume up full and playing the "hey everyone i am looking at porno" wav.

Again with all these things if your using an Admin account for day to day use your making things so so easy for these idiots to do there dirty work.

[Saab Dastard]

Why not go straight to the source and manage them yourself?

Adobe - Flash Player : Settings Manager - Global Privacy Settings Panel (http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html)

Bear in mind that it is set per user - storage location is under Documents & Settings for each user.

Flash cookies are *.sol files.

SD

[BOAC]

SD - I believe that is the only way in IE but FF offers that plug-in.

M-J - it is not so much the thought of sneaking a look at a 'browser' through a webcam, but more the fact that these 'cookies' are permanent, large, can run items on your machine without your knowledge and send info anywhere the writer wants as I understand them - and not too many people realise they are there!

[Keef]

What he said!

I was pretty scared when I saw all the .sol files in my laptop and where they came from. I deleted the lot and installed the Firefox add-in.

I also blocked some of the sites that had loaded them - they don't come from places I click on: they are linked from those, usually with advertising or tracking as the declared intent. However, given the number of Nigerian gentlemen inviting me to send them large sums via Western Union, and the viruses that bang up against Avast most days, I'd rather not have uninvited and uncontrolled cookies running stuff on my machine.

[Tarq57]

I also blocked some of the sites that had loaded them - they don't come from places I click on:Good argument for installing the noscript add-on in Firefox, with cross site scripting disabled, then.
Trojans and rootkits often install via a similar type of pathway.

[Mornington Crescent]

C Cleaner gets rid of these cookies. Well it does for me.

[BOAC]

MC - that's good. I'm running 2.27 and it doesn't even see them - can you tell me please what settings you have?

[mad_jock]

I have just added them to avast blocked content so that should do the trick.

[Mornington Crescent]

BOAC

My C Cleaner is 2.25.1025

Applications
Multimedia
Flash Player - needs a tick

MC

[The late XV105]

I came here to post that I noticed last night that CCleaner now handles Flash cookies and saw that I'd been beaten to it but post anyway to say that it works. :)

[BOAC]

Thanks guys - I had ticked that and it hadn't worked, but I will retry. NB The FF plug-in does not require you to run another programme - it will just delete them on shutdown. The Adobe control will of course prevent them but you will probably lose Flash functionality - how will you all live without your ''high-score' tally..:)

I wonder what other things are being placed on my machine?

[SpringHeeledJack]

......... and just when you think that all the 'tracking' sh1te is generally known about and dealt with (according to personal taste) on our little computers, we learn about these lovely little files :ugh:

Here's some info wot i found :

You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again | Epicenter | Wired.com (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/you-deleted-your-cookies-think-again/)


Why oh why can't 'we' be given the chance to allow or deny ANY tracking device, rather than have to discover them and then take appropriate action ? And that these files are able to access the microphone and camera of a computer...... Surely this contravines personal privacy and hooman rights, not to say a whole plethora of laws, e.g stalking/wiretap/invasion of whatever ?

I realise that the sight and sound of an over 50 man fidddling with his computer :} is too much to contemplate, but it makes you wonder why would such a facility be enabled/allowed outside of the needs of some sinister organizations watching from the wings.



SHJ

[BOAC]

...err...............SHJ - where have you been these last couple of days....................:confused:

[SpringHeeledJack]

...err...............SHJ - where have you been these last couple of days....................

Well BOAC, not here obviously! I just read this thread a short while ago, and as i'm the owner of an old mac i tend not to read too many of the threads here as they tend to be PC specific which should be no suprise.

The rest of my post was me thinking aloud, as i have a wont to do :) and some good links to removal tools for various platforms etc.



SHJ

[Mornington Crescent]

BOAC

I'll have a go.

I am on W7 so the routes may be different.

If you run C Cleaner it deletes the sol files associated with the cookies.
If you check the folders you will find the sol files have been deleted and presumably the cookies too.

However, when you go to the settings manager on the flash website and look at the visited websites list there are still entries there.

Now if you go back to the flash player folder:
Users\Name\Appdata\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys you will find a file settings.sol

Add this file to your c cleaner Options (advanced custom files to delete)

Tick custom files under advanced.

Run ccleaner and then the list of files on the flash website should be empty.

I know you are more PC savvy than me so apologies for the detail.

MC

[BOAC]

I know you are more PC savvy than me so apologies for the detail. - a nice thought, MC, but misplaced! I'll have another go (XP).

[call100]

Thanks MC.
Always relied on FireFox to do the job but have added the file to CCleaner....
Just one point. In my version of CC the files are added in ...Options - Include - Add File (Folder).......Not under Advanced...My version is 2.27.1070...
Thanks again:ok:

[Mornington Crescent]

C100

Thanks for that. You are quite right about the location in C cleaner.

F F has a good solution but a lot of folk use IE and other browsers so C cleaner is a useful catch all.