Flash cookies are a slightly different type of cookie to normal web cookies that are installed when a flash plugin or flash video is used on a website. Unfortunately these cookies aren’t set to expire and are a privacy problem as they can track which websites you visit. This is done in order to target advertising to you. They are stored in the same place regardless of the browser as they are installed by the Macromedia Flash Plugin. They are stored as .sol files and can’t be viewed by a text editor. They are alternatively known as Super Cookies and Local Shared Objects or LSO’s.
Another problem is that they are not cleaned by your browser when you clear your browsers cache. Luckily there are several ways to manage or remove flash cookies. We have looked at Super Cookies before in March 2009 and compared them to normal web cookies.
Programs to Delete Flash Cookies (Super Cookies)
1. Ccleaner Deletes Flash Cookies
Already using Ccleaner? Don’t worry your covered as the option below shows that LSO’s will be removed by CCleaner.
2. Flash Cookie Cleaner
Consumersoft’s Flash Cookie Cleaner will either open a window showing the directory with flash cookies in or will delete all flash cookies.
3. Flash Cookies View by Nirsoft
Another great app from Nirsoft who get mentioned frequently on JonnysBlog. Flash Cookies View displays each cookie and also their contents. The contents of the cookies can be saved to a txt file.
4. BetterPrivacy
An effective plugin for Firefox is BetterPrivacy. It automatically removes Flash Cookies when Firefox exits.
If you use Firefox then this may be the easiest option for you.
Other ways of deleting LSO’s :
Alternatively LSO’s / Flash Cookies can be managed using the instructions from Adobe Macromedia themselves via the Website Storage Settings Panel.
Flash cookies can also be manually deleted by yourself by navigating to C:\Users\(Your Profile Name)\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia.com\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\(Web Site / App Path).
How do you manage Super Cookies? Let us know in the comments…
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February 4th, 2010 → 9:17 pm @ Jonny
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