Supercookies and sneaky 'DOM Storage' longterm tracking

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26 Mar 2010, 1:47 pm

Thank you to ToughDiamond for giving me the heads-up about these. They may be common knowledge to many but I hadn't heard about them until now and a little research has shown:

Supercookies
Cookies that completely ignore you browsers cookie settings! They persist for ever giving marketers and others the ability to track your web usage and the sites you visit. Even if you have set your browser (any browser) to delete all cookies on browser close they still remain. There are no restrictions on the type of personal information they can hold about you. Apparently no web browsers (Firefox, IE etc) have permissions to delete these tracking cookies and they reside in the following folder in Windows (slightly different location in Linux and Mac computers):

"C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys\-- lots of folders here, one per website cookie --"

I've just knocked up a utility program as compiled VS2008 that deletes all subdirectories and files in that sys folder every time Firefox is started (I'll publish the code in this thread if anyone asks). However, for anyone less technical you can apparently get a Firefox addon called "BetterPrivacy" which deletes these cookies and also something called "DOM Storage".

DOM Storage
Another type of tracking cookie I'd never heard of. I'm struggling to find adequate information about these. Apparently websites can now store cookies in your web browser itself! Presumably this means embedded data in the settings file for the browser. It isn't clear if the latest version of Firefox has options to exclude / view or delete these cookies that have infiltrated your browser settings file. Anyone know more about them?

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Last edited by TallyMan on 26 Mar 2010, 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

TallyMan
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26 Mar 2010, 1:53 pm

Anyone with a VS2008 compiler can compile the following few lines into an exe. Substitute (username) with your real username:

Code:

        Dim strPath As String = "C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys"
        Dim strDir As String

        strDir = ""
        Try
            For Each strDir In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(strPath,FileIO.SearchOption.SearchTopLevelOnly, "*")
                My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteDirectory(strDir, FileIO.DeleteDirectoryOption.DeleteAllContents)
            Next
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox("Error deleting the following folder:" & vbCrLf & strDir & vbCrLf & ex.Message, MsgBoxStyle.Exclamation, "Delete Flash Supercookies")
        End Try

        Me.Close()

I've changed my Firefox shortcut to run a batch file called Firefox.bat containing the following two lines of code:

Code:

"DeleteFlashSupercookies.exe"
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

This works fine. Maybe someone can give a listing of a few lines of generic script that anyone can use without recourse to a compiler?

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Last edited by TallyMan on 26 Mar 2010, 4:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.

justMax
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26 Mar 2010, 2:36 pm

Thank you for the tip, went and cleared it out by hand, been wondering where some of the slowdown was hiding.

ValMikeSmith
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26 Mar 2010, 4:41 pm

I knew about these things for a while but everyone just ignores me.
The sure sign of brain washing is responding to anything using the
phrase "conspiracy theory".

This supercookie crap started with FLASH 7 !

Windows people are SOL with the EULAs
but everyone else should sue and press charges for illegal wiretapping
and computer fraud and abuse (illegal intrusion into a computer system)
and if the laws no longer apply, then there's no reason not to do THIS:
EVERYONE including WINDOWS USERS should self-help and hack back! :twisted:

Believe it or not, MOST COMPUTERS DO NOT RUN WINDOWS (TRUE!! !).
MOST OF INTEL PROCESSORS AREN'T EVEN USED IN PC's!
Half of my computers aren't PCs and none of them are Macs.

Willard
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26 Mar 2010, 5:04 pm

I don't find any appdata folder under the username.

TallyMan
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26 Mar 2010, 5:24 pm

Willard wrote:

I don't find any appdata folder under the username.

If you are using Vista or Windows 7 it is hidden. Microsoft don't trust you with your own data! :lol:

You need to turn on the setting to show hidden folders and files in Windows Explorer.

I'll just add that if anyone manually deletes these supercookies to only delete the folders inside the sys folder. Do not delete the sys folder itself or the settings.sol file or you could upset flash player.

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Last edited by TallyMan on 26 Mar 2010, 5:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Fuzzy
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26 Mar 2010, 5:32 pm

TallyMan wrote:

[You need to turn on the setting to show hidden folders and files in Windows Exploder.

Fixed. You're welcome.

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TallyMan
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26 Mar 2010, 5:34 pm

Fuzzy wrote:

TallyMan wrote:

[You need to turn on the setting to show hidden folders and files in Windows Exploder.

Fixed. You're welcome.

Apparently the same supercookies also exist in Linux (Ubuntu) and Mac assuming you have flash installed.

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Fuzzy
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26 Mar 2010, 5:35 pm

TallyMan wrote:

Fuzzy wrote:

TallyMan wrote:

[You need to turn on the setting to show hidden folders and files in Windows Exploder.

Fixed. You're welcome.

Apparently the same supercookies also exist in Linux (Ubuntu) and Mac assuming you have flash installed.

They do yes.

My solution is just to have them written to /dev/shm.

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0_equals_true
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26 Mar 2010, 8:26 pm

Suppercookies only work when browsers expose the private information to get saved in the first place. Granted they aren't really doing to much about it. Any plug-in, or downloaded software could potentially reap your private information.

ValMikeSmith
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26 Mar 2010, 8:35 pm

TallyMan wrote:

Fuzzy wrote:

TallyMan wrote:

[You need to turn on the setting to show hidden folders and files in Windows Exploder.

Fixed. You're welcome.

Apparently the same supercookies also exist in Linux (Ubuntu) and Mac assuming you have flash installed.

Yes they do. Delete SOL files.

Are there Open Source Mozilla or other Browsers to change the code to do
what I tell it to? I won't let people tresspass my equipment.
This machine is my slave, not my master, and not anyone else's,
and its nobody else's business.
If one program did what I told it not to, it's broken and I have to fix it.

Fuzzy
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26 Mar 2010, 9:28 pm

ValMikeSmith wrote:

TallyMan wrote:

Fuzzy wrote:

TallyMan wrote:

[You need to turn on the setting to show hidden folders and files in Windows Exploder.

Fixed. You're welcome.

Apparently the same supercookies also exist in Linux (Ubuntu) and Mac assuming you have flash installed.

Dont use the adobe flash player then. Maybe try gnash, the open source one?

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davidred wrote...
I installed Ubuntu once and it completely destroyed my paying relationship with Microsoft.

gamefreak
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26 Mar 2010, 10:15 pm

Both adobe and microsoft should have charges pressed against them. I knew about it for a while but people just thought I was nuts.

zer0netgain
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27 Mar 2010, 6:05 pm

Get the Better Privacy plugin for Firefox. It takes care of that problem.

t0
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27 Mar 2010, 7:24 pm

So is it safe to say (after all this research) that "Supercookies" are not HTTP cookies at all but psuedo-cookies that Macromedia has put into Flash? Therefore the culprit is Macromedia/Adobe and not the browser (or OS) vendor?

Fuzzy
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27 Mar 2010, 8:52 pm

t0 wrote:

Correct. So any site that makes use of flash(such as WP) gets an entry.

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davidred wrote...
I installed Ubuntu once and it completely destroyed my paying relationship with Microsoft.

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