I just started using NIS 2012 and, unlike NIS 2011, whenever there is a quick scan or full scan there are no tracking cookies found. With NIS 2011 there were always a few and they would be deleted. I saw this on another thread here and the person also experiencing this was told to check "Resolved Security Risks" (under Security History). He did and was relieved to see the missing cookies there. But mine is empty. The only thing there is the EICAR test string I ran to see if it was even working.
So is something wrong with my NIS 2012 or is this the new procedure? I have "Tracking Cookies Scan" set to remove on NIS 2012 and have the recommended "allow local date to be set" for cookies with Google Chrome.
I am using NIS 2012 and had a tracking found yesterday on a scan, so I don't think this is an issue everyone is experiencing
You may have done this but could you be sure your settings are set up correctly
it is under computer>computer scan please be sure your tracking cookie preference is set to "remove" or "ask me" the center is ignore
A very safe cookie for testing is used by newegg.com setup correctly look at some things on newegg and then run a quick scan, it sould find the "cookie" and remove it if that is your setting
I did a quick scan today and found no tracking cookies and my settings are set to Ask Me. Then I went to YAHOO and clicked on CNN.com watched that for a minute ran another quick scan and sure enough 8 were found,, and that was after clearing my browser IE8, That could work..Best ...Gorpy1
I went through Newegg and a bunch of CNN stories and ran a quick scan and came up with zero. And my tracking cookies scan is set to remove. Something's just not right.
I just did a quick scan after going to several sites and 38 cookies were found. Then I went again to several sites and 19 cookies were found. In both cases all were resolved. But the Idle Quick Scan is not picking up cookies. Also when a Full Scan was scheduled on Oct. 31 no cookies were found and this is very unusual as I generally have at least a few cookies found. I have the NIS 2011. I might do a Full System Scan again to check that.
I have always found that the auto quick scans never delete any tracking cookies except when the user initiates a manual quick scan. This was like this for me in NIS 2011 and 2012 versions! I have my settings for tracking cookies to 'remove'. Since my last 'manual' scan on 30th. Oct. I notice there have been four auto quick scans and no tracking cookies picked up. I just ran a manual quick scan and a total of 28 were then deleted!
Now I'm not sure if this is corret or not but as I mentioned earlier, it was always like this for me and I have NIS installed on 3 pc's at home and they are also the same.
I am running W7 64 bit, NIS 2012.
Forgot to add, whenever an automatic full system scan is done, tracking cookies are always detected. Last month I changed this setting from weekly to monthly so I am still waiting on a full scan to kick in, should be in the next few days but checked the last two from my history and they were detected ok!
This may be a NIS 2012 and Chrome issue. On a whim I opened Firefox and went to Newegg and CNN and then ran a quick scan. There were 4 tracking cookies found and removed. Repeated with Chrome and nothing. Same with a manual full scan.
And Chrome is set for "Allow local data to be set" so I don't think it is some special Google trick nixing cookies.
As long as Tracking Cookies is set to Remove or Ask Me I don't know much about Google Chrome, but this (not finding tracking cookies) I'm sure is nothing to worry about and if it was a problem would be fixed with the next set of virus defs,or a temporary problem. I just did a quick scan and found 36 when yesterday I found none in my first 2 scans and 8 eventually, Again I bet if you ran it today it should be fine...Best.......Gorpy1
I neglected to indicate I use IE 9, (very sorry) and did not think through the different storage functions of browsers (in this case Chrome) Maybe some technical Chrome users can shed some light.
P.S. -- Also a good test would be to see if your IE (assuming you have it on your system) when using some test sites and let it save it's cookies, then see if NIS catches those cookies. This would tell us if it is Chrome alone
I neglected to indicate I use IE 9, (very sorry) and did not think through the different storage functions of browsers (in this case Chrome) Maybe some technical Chrome users can shed some light.
P.S. -- Also a good test would be to see if your IE (assuming you have it on your system) when using some test sites and let it save it's cookies, then see if NIS catches those cookies. This would tell us if it is Chrome alone
All the best -- Bill
Hi, Betme. If you are using IE9, have you enabled IE9's Tracking Protection? Have you installed an Auto-Update to IE9's Tracking Protection List?
If so, that list will automatically block third-party-cookies. These are the cookies that normally track users across websites and allow websites to build user demographic data - which is used to serve up targeted ads based on your browsing history when linking to affiliated websites. These are the "tracking cookies" that both an Idle Quick Scan or an Idle Full System Scan would normally detect and offer to remove.
However, because these "tracking cookies" are being blocked dynamically by IE9 - they never build up in your Cookie Cache - so there is no "fodder" for the NIS Scans to find - and as a result, your Scans come back clean.
Using IE9 with a properly configured and auto-updated Tracking Protection List means that tracking cookies will be found by NIS Scans only if that advertiser is not yet in IE9's Tracking Protection List. (And even then, not for long.)
So, if IE9 is doing what it's supposed to do (adblock) - you should find that NIS Scans just don't have as much stuff to process. This is normal and correct.
I happen to believe that we should not be blaming NIS for these "no show" tracking cookies...
I use the Firefox browser and NIS (for many years) and W7-64 bit. I am now on NIS version 19.1.1.3 and Firefox 7.0.1
My experience is that NIS used to systematically pick up two or three tracking cookies, almost always the same ones, whenever any manual or auto scan was performed. In more recent times, even before upgrading to NIS 2012, I started noticing the absence of tracking cookies being caught on the vast majority of all scans. And Firefox had already started their recent upgrade frenzy, moving from version to version every other month or so...
From my observation, I am convinced that the absence of trackies being caught by NIS is likely to result from a better job at filtering them by my browser (I always had my settings to block third party cookies) much more likely than from NIS not being efficient at catching them. Matter of fact, NIS still catches some, sporadically (I can see 12 instances so far this year since January, 4 of them during the month of June, for whatever reason), and I understand this probably comes as a result of some lag between the browser's list updates. Should NIS have a problem catching trackies it most likely would never catch any at all, I believe.
Thank you for posting, yes I am aware of the capabilities of IE9 and I was responding to the OP's issues with the Chrome browser.
You have posted some very useful info and to add to that, I have used NIS's tracking cookie finder to manually populate my sites list, effectively this will minimize the "finding" of tracking cookies during scans.
The issue of the post is tracking cookies present with Chrome, this may be a "tribute" to Chrome (depending on your view) I am sure the OP is concerned the cookies are "out there somewhere" maybe we will get the clarification the OP is looking for.
Like I had said before, NIS 2011 would always find tracking cookies whether on quick scan or a manual full scan. And it would do it for Firefox and Chrome usage. But ever since I switched over to NIS 2012 (a week ago) it has never found a tracking cookie no matter what type of scan I ran while using Chrome (my main browser). I tried Firefox again and cookies were found. Back to Chrome and none found. As for Chrome blocking them on the front end, I have the same settings that I had when NIS 2011 consistently found them. So it has to be something in the new NIS program that isn't playing well with Chrome.
I use NIS 2011 now, and had NI* 2010. Have always used an IE browser. Always had NIS tracking cooks sett to “ask me” Tracking cookies found on manual quick scan. Tracking cookies NEVER detected on idle quick scans
Cookies are a fact of life on most websites and most are harmless. If you want to block 3rd party cookies, you can go to Internet Options > Privacy > Advanced and block them.
The following post by SendOfJive gives a good explanation of this.
I know they are relatively harmless. The point was why isn't NIS 2012 finding them? If NIS 2011 did, shouldn't the latest version. And if not, shouldn't there be an explanantion? If the latest version isn't finding something simple like a tracking cookie it tends to make people wonder what else it isn't finding. That was the point. And a point that has yet to be answered.
Does anybody at Norton actually read the forum? Or is letting frustrated customers figure it out, if they can, for themselves their official customer support plan?
I know they are relatively harmless. The point was why isn't NIS 2012 finding them? If NIS 2011 did, shouldn't the latest version. And if not, shouldn't there be an explanantion? If the latest version isn't finding something simple like a tracking cookie it tends to make people wonder what else it isn't finding. That was the point. And a point that has yet to be answered.
Does anybody at Norton actually read the forum? Or is letting frustrated customers figure it out, if they can, for themselves their official customer support plan?
HI malpaso,
This is mainly a user to user forum but YES absolutely Symantec employees read and participate as needed in the forum discussions. Many of them do it on their own time in addition to their primary job. They do this because they care.
Do you have tracking cookies set to Remove, Ask Me or what? Have you performed a manual quick scan and if so what were the results?
I am sure this is working as designed but I will ask Symantec for an "official" answer in terms of whether (by design) Automatic Quick Scans are supposed to find tracking cookies as opposed to manual quick scans. I will update this thread when I hear back from them.
I was hoping for you to get an answer suitable to your question sooner, there are a lot of good Norton employees on the forum (names are in red). If you are like me little things sometimes bug us the worst, and I am with you on wondering what may have changed in your system (I do mean what has "broken") for your piece of mind.
I have some ideas, could you check and see if you can "see" some cookies known to get flagged as tracking by NIS 2012, you have some examples from earlier post.
I have goggled how to do this in Chrome (hope this is correct), first hit the wrench icon and chose options
Then select show cookies
Finally in the show cookies box confirm you have cookies stored NIS is known to remove
This should confirm there is an issue and may get a response from Norton, thank you for hanging in there -- Bill
