Disconnect for the Google Chrome web browser makes that extra step by disabling third party tracking in the browser. It for instance disables third party tracking by Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook or Digg without requiring any setup or configuration.

The extension places an icon in the Chrome address bar that indicates the number of third party tracking scripts and cookies that have been blocked by the extension. A click on the icon reveals the exact count for each service supported by the Google Chrome extension.

A click on a service unblocks the service on all websites. This requires a reload of the website in question before the changes become visible. The ability to unblock services helps users who use one or some of the third party tracking services on the Internet. The setting is remembered between sessions.

What are some of the benefits of disabling third party tracking. Privacy is obviously the main concern here. The extension aids users who search on Google or Yahoo by blocking identifying cookies.

Chrome users who would like to disable third party tracking by Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Digg or Facebook should consider installing Disconnect. The extension is directly available at the Google Chrome Extensions gallery.

Yahoo’s Ad Internet Manager reveals the information that Yahoo has accumulated based on activity on Yahoo sites like Flickr, Delicious or Yahoo Search.

The data consists of factual data, e.g. a user’s IP address, and “educated guesses” based on the usage of Yahoo services.

The information on the Ad Interest Manager page are divided into three groups: Interest Categories, Activities, and Computer and Cookies.

ad interest manager

Interest Categories are set based on the pages that have been visited in the past, ads that have been clicked on and viewed, and searches that have been conducted.

Activities highlight the use of Yahoo network sites by the user. It displays an activity level for each service used.

Computer and Cookies finally displays the user’s IP address and location, operating system, browser, screen resolution, color depth, age range and gender.

The information may differ depending on the web browser used to access the Ad Internet Manager website.

The page offers an opt out option to block interest based ads from being displayed. It the choice is made a cookie is saved to the computer that blocks interest based ads. This still means that ads are shown, but that those ads are not “fine tuned” by other information.

It is interesting to note that some information are guesswork, the age and gender of a user for instance. In our tests, Yahoo thought we were a 26-35 female from Mont-de-Marsan, Aquitaine, or a 56-65 female from New York, depending on the browser used to access the page. It is puzzling that the IP lookup returned locations in two different countries, with both of them being incorrect.

The Ad Interest Manager does not support Google Chrome yet, both the OS and browser information where set to unknown or blank.

Yahoo is not the only company that makes use of interest based ads. Google for instance offers a similar service that they call Ads Preferences, which can, when coupled with the information of the Google Dashboard, reveal lots of information about a particular user.

Opt Out Pages:

Yahoo Opt-Out
Google Opt-Out
Microsoft Advertising Opt-Out
Amazon Opt-Out
Privacy Choice Opt-Out (multiple ad networks)

You may also be interested in the guide “What is a tracking cookie” that not only explains what a tracking cookie is, but also how to disable them in popular web browsers.

How do you handle interest based ads and tracking cookies? Let us know in the comments.

The detection of third party cookies by security software does not mean that they pose the same danger as a computer virus, trojan or worm to the user. Tracking cookies are placed on the computer by online advertising companies. These companies track the user’s movement on the Internet for statistical and relevancy reasons.

One of the main purposes of cookies in general is to save temporary data, for instance language preferences or login information. Tracking cookies on the other hand are only created to track a users movement. The movement can still only be tracked if the user visits a website that displays the advertisement scripts of the company that has a cookie stored on the system.

Tracking cookies raise privacy issues, as they allow companies to partially track an Internet user’s movement on the Internet. The detected cookies can be deleted easily in the security software. Some web browsers, like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, offer settings to handle third party cookies. The term third party cookies might confuse some users, but it is actually fairly easy to understand. A first party cookie is placed by the website itself, it would for instance be a first party cookie if Ghacks would place a cookie on your system. A third party cookie is placed by scripts from other services, mostly advertisements that are loaded on the page.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer users can clear all cookies in the web browser by clicking on Tools > Internet Options, and then the Delete button in the General tab. This opens the Delete Browsing History menu. Cookies is one of the items available in that menu. Keep in mind that this will delete all cookies, it may mean that certain site preferences are reset to their default values. It may also mean that a login prompt is displayed on some sites on the next connection.

internet explorer cookies

Cookies will be written again on the next connection. The third party cookie behavior can be configured in the Privacy tab of the Internet Options. The default setting is medium, which blocks some third party cookies but not all of them. Moving that slider to medium high, high or “block all cookies” will reduce or eliminate cookies in the web browser. A better approach, that blocks third party cookies completely, is to click on the Advanced button to open the Advanced Privacy Settings in Internet Explorer.

advanced privacy settings

Activate “Override automatic cookie handling” and change the third party cookie selection to Block. This blocks all third party cookies in Internet Explorer without affecting third party cookies at all.

Opera

Opera users can delete cookies by clicking on the Menu button at the top left of the web browser, and then Settings > Delete Private Data.

opera delete private data

A click on the Manage Cookies button after enabling detailed options in this menu lists all cookies with the option to delete them selectively instead.

Opera offers options to change the default cookie behavior and block tracking cookies. Press Ctrl-F12 to open the Opera Preferences. Switch to the Advanced tab and select cookies from the left sidebar menu.

Change Accept cookies to Accept cookies only from the site I visit to disable third party cookies in Opera.

opera block tracking cookies

Google Chrome

A click on the wrench and the selection of Options opens the Google Chrome Options window. The Under the Bonnet tab contains options to clear the browsing data and set the default cookie behavior.

A click on Clear browsing data opens a new window with the option to delete stored cookies, among other data.

delete cookies google chrome

General cookie behavior can be set in the Content settings menu. Cookies is one of the options in that menu. Locate the checkbox “Block all third-party cookies without exception” to block all tracking cookies from being set on the computer.

google chrome block tracking cookies

Mozilla Firefox

The keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Del opens the Clear Recent History menu in Firefox. Here it is possible to clear the cookies immediately.

clear recent history firefox

The Firefox options, located under Tools > Options offer controls to block third party cookies in the web browser. Locate the Privacy tab, and there the entry Accept third-party cookies. Remove the checkmark next to the preference to block tracking cookies and other third party cookies in the Firefox web browser.

firefox block third party cookies

Verdict

All popular web browsers offer controls to block third party cookies. Some advertising companies use Flash Cookies to track users. Please follow the link to the article linked above to find out how those can be deleted from the system as well.

If you analyze the connections that PayPal makes you notice that the site makes two connections to load objects from the domain paypal.112.2o7.net. This looks on first glance like one of those phishing websites that add the name of the service that they attack to the url to make users believe that they are on the right website. The two elements are the smallest in size (both are 43 Bytes) but seem to take the longest to transfer.

The very long url of these requests seems to transfer data about the computer system. It contains the screen resolution and browser plugins among other data which might be even more cause for concern. If you open paypal.112.2o7.net directly you are greeted with a page that is more or less blank.

Not found does not sound good as well. Omniture on the other hand will give many webmasters a clue. It is a service that analyses traffic and it seems that PayPal is one of their customers. This has been confirmed by a press release on the Omniture website which states that PayPal is indeed one of the company’s customers.

The way the data is handled, especially the cryptic url paypal.112.2o7.net can cause concern by users. PayPal should consider changing that url so that the request will come from a PayPal server and not that url.

Update: Nothing has changed ever since we first reported on the issue. PayPal is still connecting to the service.

Usually, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is very critical of big corporations who intrude on people’s privacy, but their criticism was not very harsh. Why? Because Google has developed a web browser plug-in that permits users to opt-out of this scheme.

The plug-in is available for Internet Explorer and Firefox and modifications to browser preferences in Chrome and Safari also allow people to opt-out. Google also maintains an ‘Ad Preferences Manager‘ which allows this tracking cookie to be disabled until the next time cookies are wiped.

There are several reasons to disable these cookies. Firstly, you may not entrust Google with your details. Secondly, adverts based on past browsing may be displayed to other users of the computer… not perfect if, for example, you were buying a present for a family member and they are suddenly swarmed with advertisements about it!

Most tracking cookies can be disabled if you modify browser settings. In Firefox, for example, in Preferences>Privacy, you can refuse to ‘accept third party cookies’.

Why is Phorm so dangerous? The tracking is definitely a privacy issue. The user cannot opt out of the tracking and data like search queries and visited websites are stored and analyzed. Since British companies are world renowned for data safety it is only a matter of time before data leaks user profiles.

Firephorm is a Firefox extension that is forging the cookies placed on the system to make the tracking system useless. It provides the option to forge the master cookie and the tracking cookies to either poison the system by using random cookies, using an opt-out cookie or from an UID list specified by the user.

The Firefox extension modifies http requests and response headers and can also warn the user if a webpage request was redirected via Phorm’s webwise.net.

The first applications are beneficial and most of the time necessary to use all of the functions of a website. Blocking cookies on a website that is storing session information in them will have the result that the user is asked for authentication whenever he loads a new page on the server.

Tracking cookies on the other hand do not benefit the user at all unless you would say that targeted advertisement is beneficial. It does not really make sense to enable cookies for all websites, especially those that use them to track the user. It’s more of a privacy issue but one that many users take serious.

Most browsers either come with build in features to enable cookies on a per site basis or provide extensions and add-ons that make it easy to enable cookies only on websites where cookies are necessary for the website to function properly.Firefox users can for instance use the excellent CS Lite Cookie Manager.

Internet Explorer comes with some settings in the Internet Options that can manage cookies effectively has a few options as well but not as man as Internet Explorer.