Deleting Cookies - Or Not.

[Playbill]

I regularly delete cookies on my PC from sites that track, place ads, etc.

However, they reappear very quickly - sometimes within minutes, I have checked. Some are easy to spot as they have a title or give a clue to what they are for, but many are unrecognisable and unidentifiable.

The ones that really puzzle me are from well known sites I have never used: facebook and twitter for example.

How do they get there?

[AB Editor]

They're probably not from those sites directly, but might be for sharing via those services. They may be cookies called "twitter" from "add this".

If you don't want cookies, you need to stop using the internet :)

[Old_Geezer]

You can run SUPERAntiSpyware for checking. I don't know if you can block spyware cookies in real time, as I don't like PC resource continually being used like that, so I never look for it.

[society]

O_G do you think that's better than Anti-Malwarebytes?

[Old_Geezer]

I think they do different things, although there is some overlap.

[AB Editor]

What do you mean by "spyware cookies" O-G?

Usually these would get picked up by MSE/Malwarebytes/AVG. I would be wary of using something else.

[Old_Geezer]

Any known to be part of monitoring where you visit across sites.

[AB Editor]

"Any known to be part of monitoring where you visit across sites"

Yep, well that's pretty much all advertising/tracking online then...

[bibblebub]

If you are using Firefox then try Self-Destructing Cookies https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/self-destructing-cookies/?src=search - once you've set it up any unwanted cookies disappear within seconds (rather than having to wait until end of session). I've been using it for some time and allow cookies from only a few sites (including AB); cookies for any other sites remain only as long as I have open tabs for those sites.

[AB Editor]

I was using "ghostly" until recently to test cookies, I believe that has a similar function.

[AB Editor]

Sorry, ghostery: http://www.ghostery.com/

[bibblebub]

i too use ghostery but that won't touch cookies for the sites that you visit which is why i use the add-on i suggested above

[Playbill]

Thanks for all the replies.

bibblebub: That add on seems to be what I need; I will give it a try.

Ed: I realise that cookies for adverts are necessary on sites like this and for quicker page loading. But I am very suspicious of cookies that seem to have no connection with any site I have looked at. I checked some of them and found they were all 'tracking' cookies. These clearly do not work as it is very rare for any advert to appear that I have the slightest interest in.

[Wak]

I use C/Cleaner which collects all cookies used during the session.
You can save any useful ones within the C/Cleaner program and the unwanted ones are removed during the next boot-up providing you set uo C/Cleaner to do this.

[Playbill]

Methyl: Thanks, I looked at the google privacy page and found they seem to know nothing about me. So that may be why I never get any ads related to my interests. Far as I'm concerned it can stay that way!