Flash Player Settings Manager
This you are really deleting your cookies when you clear internet explore…
…Flash player keeps a whole other set of cookies.
I found out about this listening to Security Now Episode 120.
Here’s and excerpt from the transcript
Steve: So I wanted to mention that to everyone who’s listening because many people wrote in having done this experiment. They deleted their cookies, they emptied their browser cache, they shut down their browser, they rebooted their computer, they took their laptop to somewhere else, and they were - and literally at least 40 people wrote in and said, “It still knew me. How did it know me?” And so I appreciated this confirmation that this use of Flash cookies is becoming more widespread, clearly in this case, as he says three out of the three financial institutions he used plant Flash cookies.
So to all listeners, into Google you want to put “Flash player settings manager.” Just put in “Flash player settings manager,” and you get a link to Macromedia, maybe it says Adobe now, I’m not sure, I don’t remember whether they’ve changed the URL. But the point is, most of us have Flash loaded in our machines now, which unfortunately is why the banks have all started using it. It’s something that survives, as many listeners have discovered, it survives casual cookie deletion. And exactly as this guy has mentioned, it annoys him because it is unknown and is unclear.
The good news is, it’s possible to control these settings and to prevent sites from using Flash cookies if for some reason you really didn’t want that, or to restrict sites that you have specifically allowed. Anyway, there’s good Flash cookie management available, and it’s a web-based interface. You don’t use your local Flash player, running it like standalone, because it is an embedded web page object. Instead, if you put in “Flash player settings manager,” that’ll take you to the Flash site, where you’re then able to go to some web pages to bring up a little tabbed interface. Basically it runs your Flash player on the page and gives you access to a user interface you never knew you had. And you’re able to browse through and see the domains that have registered cookies on your machine. You can delete them right there. You’re able to change settings. You’re able to do some worrisome things, like you can tell it don’t ever turn on my microphone and camera without letting me know. It’s like, okay, well, that’s probably a good thing to tell it. So you’re able to do that and a number of other things.
So again, “Flash player settings manager,” and poke around in there. You’ll find out who has stored cookies, so you know. You’re able to delete them. You’re able to then block them and prevent them from changing. Anyway, there’s a whole bunch of tabs and settings that are definitely worth poking around in.