I get one of those NIS pop-ups crowing something like "NIS has found and fixed threats to your computer. Click here to see the threats."
It sounds so proud of itself -- as though it has singlehandedly averted World War III.
And once again I am suckered into it. What might it have found this time? A backdoor virus? A trojan trying to swallow my system? Did someone send me an attachment that attacks my computer simply on being downloaded? Is there something dangerous left behind? But this little self-satisfied useless app doesn't tell me a thing. If I want to know more about this threat, I am simply going to have to "click here."
And so I do. And then there is the wait while an entire another subroutine is launched and a new display comes up and finally (finally!) there it is:
Ta-ta!
Norton Internet Security has ...
Wait for it ...
Yes, ...
Here it comes ...
Yes, it has ...
Found and deleted ....
COOKIES!
Oh, the horror of it! Be still my heart.
I tremble with the danger I have barely dodged.
Thank you, Symantec! Thank you, NIS! Thank you, universe, for gracing my life with this product that has saved me from ... cookies!
And thinks I need to know about it the moment it happens.
I swear, were some other company to come up with a product that matched NIS in quickness and mostly low impact and did NOT give stupid messages about conquering cookies in fierce battle (or, at the very least, would distinguish between the horror of cookies and the real threats in the pop-up), I would switch my allegiance in a flash.
Try configuring your browser to allow first party cookies, block third party cookies, and always allow session cookies. I have and enjoy the silence.
I used to do that, but the problem with that approach is that it breaks some sites that use cookies from a different domain to identify you. Google being one of them. If you log in on google.co.uk, it uses a cookie from google.com, which is blocked as it is a 3rd party one so your login doesn't persist. It's a pain in the **** to put it bluntly and it's not just google that I have noticed that issue on.
I find that Javacools Spywareblaster is good at blacklisting the bad cookies and stopping them getting on your computer in the first place.
It would be helpful to change the wording of this pop-up to: "Norton Internet Security has Detected and Resolved Tracking Cookies; Click Here for More Details."; this would avoid confusion among users when N.I.S. Detects Tracking Cookies.
Message Edited by Floating_Red on 10-17-2009 11:04 PM
Message Edited by Floating_Red on 10-17-2009 11:07 PM
If you use Opera, you can set it to delete cookies when you close the browser. That;'s how I have it set and I never see an NIS pop-up for evil cookies being deleted.
I get one of those NIS pop-ups crowing something like "NIS has found and fixed threats to your computer. Click here to see the threats."
It sounds so proud of itself -- as though it has singlehandedly averted World War III.
And once again I am suckered into it. What might it have found this time? A backdoor virus? A trojan trying to swallow my system? Did someone send me an attachment that attacks my computer simply on being downloaded? Is there something dangerous left behind? But this little self-satisfied useless app doesn't tell me a thing. If I want to know more about this threat, I am simply going to have to "click here."
And so I do. And then there is the wait while an entire another subroutine is launched and a new display comes up and finally (finally!) there it is:
Ta-ta!
Norton Internet Security has ...
Wait for it ...
Yes, ...
Here it comes ...
Yes, it has ...
Found and deleted ....
COOKIES!
Oh, the horror of it! Be still my heart.
I tremble with the danger I have barely dodged.
Thank you, Symantec! Thank you, NIS! Thank you, universe, for gracing my life with this product that has saved me from ... cookies!
And thinks I need to know about it the moment it happens.
I swear, were some other company to come up with a product that matched NIS in quickness and mostly low impact and did NOT give stupid messages about conquering cookies in fierce battle (or, at the very least, would distinguish between the horror of cookies and the real threats in the pop-up), I would switch my allegiance in a flash.
Most computer cookies are rather low risk; however, there are indeed some that'll cause you a big nuisance. Nevertheless, I wouldn't go the cookie-blocking route in browser configurations for reasons already mentioned here.
You can configure NIS to automatically either ignore the low-risk cookies or remove them.
Choose Tools and then Internet Options. Click the Privacy tab.
Move the slider to choose your preferred settings.
For more specialized cookie settings click on Advanced, check the 'Override cookie handling' button and modify the settings to suit your requirements.
Internet Explorer 7.0
Choose Tools and then Internet Options. Click the Privacy tab. Move the slider to choose your preferred settings.
The default setting is medium and the menu allows you to select the level of "filtering" on the basis of (a) the source of the cookie and (b) whether the source has a privacy policy.
For more specialized cookie settings click on Advanced.
Mozilla Firefox 3.0
Click on Tools, then Options (or Edit | Preferences on Linux.) Select Privacy. Select Cookies. Choose your preferred settings (You can configure which sites are allowed to set cookies, how long to keep them for, and view and manage your existing cookies.)
Hope these steps help a bit, as they are giving you more "granular" control outside of NIS.
Thanks, for providing the information on how to block third party cookies. I would like to add that if you have a site that require third party cookies simply click on Tools>Internet Options>Security Tab>Trusted Sites (In IE7&8). Be sure to clear the check box labeled: Require Server Verification (https) for all sites in this zone. Then insert the web address of the site next to the add button then click the add button. When all sites have been added click on ok twice.