Kudos0

Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 8:13AM · Edited: 05-Mar-2020 | 10:04AM · 25 Replies ·

Every time NIS 2010 finds a tracking cookie, I get one of these:

This message does not tell you it was just a tracking cookie, so you must stop what you are doing and hit up "details".

Is there a way to turn this off -- just for tracking cookies?

This dialog is becoming "the boy who cried wolf" -- I see it so frequently it is possible I will ignore it if/when a more serious threat is found.  (I am sure my other family members are already ignoring it.)

Thanks

- Chris

Replies

Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 8:13AM · Permalink

Every time NIS 2010 finds a tracking cookie, I get one of these:

This message does not tell you it was just a tracking cookie, so you must stop what you are doing and hit up "details".

Is there a way to turn this off -- just for tracking cookies?

This dialog is becoming "the boy who cried wolf" -- I see it so frequently it is possible I will ignore it if/when a more serious threat is found.  (I am sure my other family members are already ignoring it.)

Thanks

- Chris
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 8:17AM · Permalink

You cannot attach an image in this forum. Kindly describe what you are seeing and what the issue is.

Kindly advise what you mean by "so of you must stop what you are doing and hit up "details".. What do you mean?

If you ignore a message from Norton then that is your decision.

Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 8:18AM · Permalink

Hi caa100,

You can turn off the notification by doing the following:

Open NIS 2010, go to Settings on the Computer tab, then to Tracking Cookies Scan. Click on the bar until it says "Remove", in which case the tracking cookies will be automatically removed during scans without popping up a notification.

Your Norton Ladybug.
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 8:25AM · Permalink

cgoldman wrote:

You cannot attach an image in this forum. Kindly describe what you are seeing and what the issue is.

Kindly advise what you mean by "so of you must stop what you are doing and hit up "details".. What do you mean?

If you ignore a message from Norton then that is your decision.

?? I can see the image in the post ??

Anyway, it was a picture of the famous tray notification that says: "The Idle Time Scan has found and fixe threats.  For more information, click View Details."

To see the "Threat" you must click view details. 

I see this on a regular basis, and it always turns out to be tracking cookies. Because NIS is so busy telling us about tracking cookies, the danger is it will be ignored when something more serious has occurred.

I would like to turn off the threat notification for cookies only, so that I only see this message for more serious threats.  My question is whether this is possible.

To be clear:

  • I do not want to turn off scanning for tracking cookies
  • I do not want to turn off (or ignore) threat notifications.
  • I just want the system to not get all "Red Alert" on me when its just a tracking cookie
- Chris
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 8:28AM · Permalink

Yaso_Kuuhl wrote:

Hi caa100,

You can turn off the notification by doing the following:

Open NIS 2010, go to Settings on the Computer tab, then to Tracking Cookies Scan. Click on the bar until it says "Remove", in which case the tracking cookies will be automatically removed during scans without popping up a notification.

Thanks for the suggestion.  Tried it, but the option is already set to "Remove". 

Even if NIS is set to automatically remove cookies, it will give you a tray notification about it.    What I want is to have it not bother me with a tray popup "The Idle Time Scan has found and fixed threats..." message if all it is is a cookie.

- Chris
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 8:30AM · Permalink

Hi caa100,

About posting images in the forum: images have to approved by the moderator before all forum users can view them. In the meantime, what the others can see is a yellow triangle with a black rim until the image has been evaluated and given the green light :-)

Your Norton Ladybug.
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 8:39AM · Permalink

caa100 wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion.  Tried it, but the option is already set to "Remove". 

Even if NIS is set to automatically remove cookies, it will give you a tray notification about it.    What I want is to have it not bother me with a tray popup "The Idle Time Scan has found and fixed threats..." message if all it is is a cookie.

Do you get this notification with every scan type (Quick Scan, Full System Scan) or only after an Idle Time Scan?

Another option would be to turn on Silent Mode, which is popular with gamers since it suppresses notifcations. Silent Mode, however, only lasts for 6 hours max.

Your Norton Ladybug.
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 12:36PM · Permalink

@yaso_kuuhl:

The tray notifications only appear when idle time scans finds a "threat". 

(By the way,  I think the picture in the first post should be visible now.)

- Chris
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 12:38PM · Permalink

I hoped the answer to this question would be an obscure setting hidden away in the options.  I gather the answer is no.

Thanks for all the workaround suggestions. 

I am going to disable cookie scanning. I would prefer not to do this, but I do not want to condition my family to ignore the "threat alerts".    One day there might me a message there that is important.

Symantec: How bout the ability to configure what triggers a tray notification? 

Or, have the tray notification state what kind of "Threat" was fixed.

- Chris
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 2:12PM · Permalink

caa100 wrote:

?? I can see the image in the post ??

But when I posted the image was not available. Probably because it has to be approved by a moderator.

Anyway, it was a picture of the famous tray notification that says: "The Idle Time Scan has found and fixe threats.  For more information, click View Details."

Yes, I see. However, you do not have to stop anything and can ignore the message if you wish, the details are always recorded in history.

To see the "Threat" you must click view details. 

I see this on a regular basis, and it always turns out to be tracking cookies. Because NIS is so busy telling us about tracking cookies, the danger is it will be ignored when something more serious has occurred.

I take your point. YOu can turn off tracking cookies, but in fact there are so many cookies, it is better I find to have some deleted than none. 

I would like to turn off the threat notification for cookies only, so that I only see this message for more serious threats.  My question is whether this is possible.

To be clear:

  • I do not want to turn off scanning for tracking cookies
  • I do not want to turn off (or ignore) threat notifications.
  • I just want the system to not get all "Red Alert" on me when its just a tracking cookie

yes I see.

Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 2:14PM · Permalink

caa100 wrote:

(By the way,  I think the picture in the first post should be visible now.)

It is. My apologies I was mistaken in what I wrote about posting images.

Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 04-Feb-2010 | 7:12PM · Permalink

Hi caa100,

The best solution for you would be to configure your browser to block third-party cookies and to remove all but the persistent cookies you want to keep (such as for your bank website) when you close your browser.  This will pretty much eliminate tracking cookies altogether and leave nothing for Norton to get excited about.  What browser are you using?

Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 05-Feb-2010 | 6:27AM · Permalink

SendOfJive wrote:

Hi caa100,

The best solution for you would be to configure your browser to block third-party cookies and to remove all but the persistent cookies you want to keep (such as for your bank website) when you close your browser.  This will pretty much eliminate tracking cookies altogether and leave nothing for Norton to get excited about.  What browser are you using?

Thanks for the suggestions.

Cookie management works great for me, and I practice it on my own system.  But its another story for the rest of my family members. (I've tried it, and it leads to endless confusion.)

I have them on FF 3.6 fully patched.  Each family member has their own windows limited user account on each PC. AdBlock plus is installed, and instead of Acrobat Reader we use FoxIt, with Javascript disabled.

I also use NoScript, but that's too confusiong for the rest of the family. 

In the end, the preferred solution would be to allow configuration of tray notifications based on threat type or threat level. 

In the meantime, I may just keep cookie scanning turned on, and hope that if there is an important notification, someone bothers to read it.  My guess is that if anything serious ever happens, it will be picked up in *real-time* anyway, which would result in a different kind of notification I think.

- Chris
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 05-Feb-2010 | 6:28AM · Permalink

cgoldman wrote:
It is. My apologies I was mistaken in what I wrote about posting images.

I think you were right, it was just awiting moderator approval.

- Chris
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 17-Feb-2010 | 5:27PM · Permalink

I agree that NIS 2010 alerts are excessive, the one that is driving me crazy at the moment is "Norton Internet Security is presently performing background tasks."  Along with the red alerts whenever a tracking cookie is found, such information is unnecessary and unwanted.

The only time I want to receive an alert is for a serious threat requiring action on my part, and it seems that Silent Mode disables virus updates, which seems like a poor solution/compromise.

If anyone learns how to disable these notifications (I understand there was a setting in NIS 2007 options that would allow some control over alert notifications but there is no "Alerts" option in NIS 2010 that I can find) it would be much appreciated if a solution could be posted.

Thanks

SK

Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 06-Mar-2010 | 4:24PM · Permalink

I agree with this thread. I hate having the threat warning popping up all the time, when all it is for is a tracking cookie. I hope they put in a setting to stop that!

Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 07-Mar-2010 | 8:52AM · Permalink

caa100 wrote:

I am going to disable cookie scanning. I would prefer not to do this, but I do not want to condition my family to ignore the "threat alerts".   One day there might be a message there that is important.

Good idea, Chris. I've gotten so accustomed to seeing "one security risk detected and resolved " after a scan, that I'm tempted to just ignore it and assume it's due to tracking cookies.  All my cookies, browsing history and temporary internet files are zapped anyway before I shut down the PC.

Now if I see a security risk message, I'll know that I should take a look at security history.

Thanks ...

NS - Vista 32bit - Win8 64bit - IE9 - Safari5
Kudos1 Stats

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 21-Mar-2010 | 12:59PM · Permalink

I'm glad someone brought up this topic.  I've actually reached my limit for these constant "threat alerts" and decided to sign up and reiterate the OP's sentiments.  It really has gotten to the point where I've stopped checking the alert, since it's always a tracking cookie.  Norton needs to add an option where it continues to remove the tracking cookies, but doesn't set off a full red-alert everytime it does this. 

Kudos1 Stats

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 08-Apr-2010 | 10:37AM · Permalink

I agree and hope Norton is listening to this.  NIS 2009 didn't have this annoying alert.  I like it when the Anti Virus program does its job and doesn't brag about it.  Some might like it telling them they are protected I see it as an unnecessary annoyance.  Norton, Please give us the option to turn off the Alert box. 

Kudos1 Stats

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 08-Apr-2010 | 12:33PM · Permalink

  Have you checked out the post for "Suggestions for NIS2011"?  Maybe someone has already suggested something like what you want. 

Kudos1 Stats

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 08-Apr-2010 | 3:18PM · Permalink

I believe it is the third or fourth post in the Suggestions Topic that mentions getting the Tracking Cookies alert removed.

Kudos1 Stats

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 24-Apr-2010 | 4:59PM · Permalink

yes please turn that msg tracker off. i'm ready to quit using norton - its so annoying and useless for me. i dread having to register & sign in this site to express this to you norton. thanks. hope this opinion is worth $25 off my 2011 renewal. 

Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 24-Apr-2010 | 6:01PM · Permalink

Personally, I'm more annoyed that a few tracking cookies manage to sneak in every week so that they're there to be reported. I'm very careful with cookie permissions and allow only a few trusted sites to keep cookies on my computer; other sites I allow only on a session-only basis. (I use Firefox with the CS Lite add-on.) How do the tracking cookies keep showing up?
Kudos0

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 24-Apr-2010 | 6:28PM · Permalink

Hello

There is a beta 2011 NIS out. You can check out the beta or the Forum for the beta and see if they have done anything about this for the 2011 version so far.

Success always occurs in private and failure in full view. Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 2004 N 360 22.20.5.39 Chrome latest version.
Kudos2 Stats

Re: Turn Off Threat Notifications for Tracking Cookies?

Posted: 24-May-2010 | 8:19AM · Permalink

Vote for the ability to turn off cookie and/or other notifications here: http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/Add-ability-to-disable-low-priority-popup-notifications/idi-p/216016
- Chris

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