cookies

Up until now, only Apple's Safari browser had blocked third-party cookies by default. Last week's release of Firefox 22 to its developer's channel also came with the feature, indicating that the option will soon make it to all Firefox users.

Firefox 22 Aurora (download for Windows, for Mac, and for Linux) blocks third-party cookies by default, putting the ad industry on notice that browsers are about to start looking askance at them. While Safari has had the feature for a long time, no other major browser has supported it until now.

Mozilla first announced in February that … Read more

Apple may be on the way to controlling more of how advertisers get user information from mobile devices.

According to TechCrunch, unnamed industry sources are saying that Apple's App Review team is denying apps that use "cookie tracking." This could be a signal that the company is going full force into its own Advertising Identifier technology.

Theoretically, the way cookie tracking works on mobile is similar to desktop: a cookie saves data and information on users' browsing history that can be used later by the app or Web site. According to TechCrunch, it was introduced as an … Read more

Firefox will soon be able to block third-party advertising cookies by default, preventing ad networks from tracking users' browser activity.

Advertisers use cookies to track users' Web activity to deliver more-targeted ads. The new patch will allow cookies from sites users actively visit but block those from third-party sites that haven't been visited by the user.

Firefox users have long had the ability to manually disable the cookies, but the patch will allow the browser to automatically perform the task. Contributed by Jonathan Mayer, a researcher at Stanford, the patch is expected to be released in Firefox 22 on … Read more

Riding on the heels of the recent U.S. lawsuit against Google for Safari tracking, Apple users in the U.K. have now launched their own similar case against the Web giant.

Peeved that their online privacy was violated, roughly a dozen people are suing Google in a class action suit, according to The Guardian. The case alleges that Google secretly tracked their Internet habits via cookies in the Safari Web browser. The lawsuit revolves around the way Google may have sidestepped Apple's security settings on the iPhone, iPad, and desktop versions of Safari.

"This is the first … Read more

In a world of cookie-cutter cookie cutters, it is not uncommon to find uninspired shapes. But then again, who cares? Cookies are delicious; it doesn't matter how they are cut. End of conversation. Except it does kind of matter; cookies not cut into circus animal shapes may taste the same, but don't tell that to the kids (or the adults who lamented the near death of that classic cookie). But even more unforgivable than carbon-copy cookie cutters, is when they become unrecognizable shapes. That is unless they combine to form a new whole.

The 3D Dinosaur Cookie Cutters from Suck UK … Read more

Facebook is testing a couple of new features that, as usual, some people may like and others not so much.

The two features would add notices of upcoming events and recently released albums to a user's news feed, according to The Next Web.

The upcoming events feature would suggest nearby events. But these would be events that you wouldn't necessarily have been invited to join, revealed blog site AllFacebook. This is also a follow-up to the upcoming concerts feature that the social network started testing last month.

The recently released albums feature would list new albums by artists … Read more

It's looking like Google may have to soon cough up the $22.5 million fine it agreed to pay in order to settle Federal Trade Commission claims that it illegally bypassed user privacy settings in Apple's Safari Web browser.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston approved the fine in San Francisco federal court late Friday, according to the Associated Press. This is the largest penalty the FTC has ever levied against a single company.

Google and the FTC reached the settlement agreement in August when the Web giant agreed to pay $22.5 million on charges that it &… Read more

If you stick with your software's default settings, you're letting the programs' vendors determine how much security is right for your system. Those vendors have their best interests in mind, not yours.

As I pointed out in last week's post titled "Ten simple, common-sense security tips," PC security doesn't have to be complicated. However, not all important PC security measures are easy to implement. Follow these less-than-intuitive steps to block Flash cookies, lock down your browser, and test your Facebook profile's privacy.

Note that not everyone needs the level of protection offered by … Read more

Is he one of us?

That's the question both the Romney and Obama campaigns will be asking as election time rolls near.

Every last vote will count. Every last nuance will matter in determining which candidate will steer America through the next four joyous years.

So how are the campaigns trying to identify those who might be on their side? Why, cookies.

According to the New York Times, many, many voters can look forward to calls from campaign workers who will, for once, be armed with very personal details about their targets' predilections.

The Times boldly declares that these … Read more