[gui-talk] FLUSHING SUPERCOOKIES

[Don Moore]

FLUSHING SUPERCOOKIES
Written by Mark Gilligan
Wednesday, 26 August 2009 

Just when you think you have seen it all, or most of it, here comes another warning. So you think you have protected yourself by intelligently managing web browser cookies? 

How about the latest cookie generation known as SuperCookies, which, according to a recent article in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/media/31privacy.html?_r=3&ref=technology, have enabled data mining companies like Acxiom to accumulate an average of 1,500 pieces of information on every single American, all 320 million of us? 

Well, now you can check for Adobe Flash cookies or Local Shared Objects (LSO). I did a check on my computer and found 131 of the little devils. Yes a lot of the web is developed in Adobe Flash these days. Web sites are using LSO to track wherever you go. 

It gets worse. Flash can also be used to reinstall the regular web cookies that you had previously deleted! 

For Mac users, there is a utility that will find and delete these obnoxious intrusions to your privacy. It is called Flush and can be found here: http://machacks.tv/2009/01/27/flushapp-flash-cookie-removal-tool-for-os-x/

The Flush application is only for use on Macintosh computers running OSX versions 10.3 (Panther) 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard).  Note that on a Macintosh the Flash cookies or LOS have a .sol suffix. 

For Windows users, there's Better Privacy.  Go to the link below and download an update to your Mozilla Firefox web browser that will search for and delete Flash LSO tracking devices. 

Once you install and configure the plug-in, the preferences allow you to delete all tracking devices and even empty the folder they are collected in. It can be found here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623


I should note that Adobe does provide a website and a website privacy panel that will let you eliminate LSO on a per domain basis.  It's called Flash Player Settings Manager http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html.  But it's cumbersome and far less effective than Flush or Better Privacy. 

If you want to learn more about LSO it can be found here: http://epic.org/privacy/cookies/flash.html


The potential sinister part is that these LSO (Local Shared Objects) can also be utilized to request permission to use your computer"s camera, microphone or to store information on your computer. The implications of this are startling. 

You can see from the above that all one needs to do is activate the camera or microphone on your computer and your privacy has been invaded! 

You can clearly see that the trend is to track you wherever you travel.  On the  internet, walking down a public street in a city, driving through tollbooths, or the shopping at the mall. 

The promise from more government and surveillance is that it will bring you more protection, more convenience and a lot less privacy. 

Big Brother is here and our Orwellian world has now evolved. 

Another example of biological intrusion is a revamped attempt by VeriChip, a company based out of Florida to implant RFID (radio frequency identification) chips into humans with a new twist. This one's is  approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

Privacy advocates have denounced these human-implantable RFID devices as "spychips" which can be used by governments as tracking devices.  The implications of this are huge privacy issues.  You can read more here: 

Spychips http://www.spychips.com/alec-big-brother-barcode-article.html

Continue to live free and avoid as much of this as possible. 

Until next time, 

Marco 

http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/3756/146/