Simple Cookie Manager App

[Bob E]

Here's an idea for anyone interested.

In Firefox and Chrome, it's a choir to hunt and pick cookies, and you have to delete the ones you don't want one at a time. The other option is "Remove All", and that option clears out your white-listed cookies as well. BleachBit is the same way, all or none.

Over in the Windows world, there's a program called CCleaner. One of the features of CCleaner is that you can select cookies to keep that won't be removed when you execute the cleaning process, thus preserving your preferred cookies while deleting all the unwanted add-ware cookies that get installed every time you go on the net.

I've looked at ALL the Firefox add-ons for cookie management, but none of them have this feature. (If there is one, I missed it, so let me know.)

I have no clue how to write and/or create such a thing, and I have no idea of the degree of difficulty this would be, but someone might be looking for something to do, and I'll bet this one would be a big hit in the Linux world.

[Here's what the CCleaner feature looks like.]
http://s813.photobucket.com/albums/zz59 ... kiemgr.jpg

[xenopeek]

Well, I just use the following:
- Go to Preferences from menu
- Go to Privacy tab
- Change "Firefox will" to "Use custom settings for history"
- Change "Keep until" to "I close Firefox"
- Then punch the Exceptions button and "Allow" those websites for which you want to keep cookies

All websites can then set cookies, but only the whitelisted ones with the Exception button survive a close of Firefox. (I also use BetterPrivacy add-on the same way, for flash cookies and local storage.) I don't have that many whitelisted websites, mostly for forums So this works great for me.

I used to use CookieSafe, which has a great feature for whitelisting cookies permanently or temporarily. That way I used to block all cookies, unless I whitelisted them. However, for Linux this still is in experimental phase and quite buggy (perhaps it got better, but two months ago it didn't function at all). I haven't found another add-on that does the same, and it looks like CookieSafe is going the way of the Dodo...

[Bob E]

Thanks again Vince.

I've only been running LM for a few months now, and some of the XP habits are still lingering. I just set FF up as per your directions and it's doing exactly what I was hoping for. Funny, as long as I've been using FF, I never "saw" that setting.

Yep, Better Privacy has always been part of the toolbag on my machines. I went back and looked at the CookieSafe add-on page, and it seems to be quite a mess at the moment.

Who knows...someone might read my OP and get inspired to "build" something.

Thanks again for you help!

[ThistleWeb]

CSLite (Cookie Safe Lite) does this for Firefox, although given the blistering pace of Mozilla's numbering PR scheme you may have to alternate between them as the addons can't update fast enough to stay compatible. I also block all cookies by default, and only allow when I need that functionality like logging in to do something. Any site that requires cookies to just view either gets closed and never revisited, or if I really need to view it, allowed temporary cookies which delete when the browser closes.

Flash cookies are particularly sneaky, you'd imagine only serious criminals would have a need for that. By the way, Disney have been unrepentant users of Flash cookies to track what CHILDREN do on their sites, despite tracking childrens behavior, knowing they're children is illegal. Better Privacy is a handy solution to Flash cookies.

NoScript and AdBlock also help maintain your privacy, allowing you to block stuff like facebook.com and google-analytics.com from data mining and adding to their existing profile on you. The way I look at it, is the more obnoxious and underhanded sites try to be, the more determined I am to thwart them and will cut them no slack at all.

[xenopeek]

The way I look at it, is the more obnoxious and underhanded sites try to be, the more determined I am to thwart them and will cut them no slack at all.

Here, here! Couldn't agree more. Normally I have the same stance on ads, but I do allow ads on Linux Mint domain I'll give CSLite a look.

[GeneC]

For Chrome/Chromium try "Vanilla Cookie Manager"

You select the cookies you want to keep, all others get deleted automatically

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gieohaicffldbmiilohhggbidhephnjj

I have been using it for several months, and its worked flawlessly.

[ThistleWeb]

Vanilla is handy in Chrome / Chromium but only does part of the solution, unless I have it confused and wrongly configured. It's a white list for cookies to protect when the cookies are cleared. It works a treat if you accept cookies by default. If you block cookies by default and only accept them when needed, you still have extra hoops to jump through to allow the site in question, which doesn't add itself as an exception on the Vanilla whitelist, if you want that, that's an extra step.

[DrHu]

Over in the Windows world, there's a program called CCleaner. One of the features of CCleaner is that you can select cookies to keep that won't be removed when you execute the cleaning process, thus preserving your preferred cookies while deleting all the unwanted add-ware cookies that get installed every time you go on the net.

That is actually too much work for me and I suspect most other people, being that cookie tracking (deletion of cookies) is what most people seem to want, they don't like being tracked, and of course there are those persistent object cookies (flash cookies) and so on..

If a web site needs a cookie it will recreate it quite happily with no user interaction (unless you are doing the smart thing and blocking most of what you don't want installed)
--for most of us, that ssems enough

Oh, I do use ccleaner in windows, as well as piriform tuneup2011, which can also delete other tracking items..

[GeneC]

Vanilla is handy in Chrome / Chromium but only does part of the solution, unless I have it confused and wrongly configured. It's a white list for cookies to protect when the cookies are cleared. It works a treat if you accept cookies by default. If you block cookies by default and only accept them when needed, you still have extra hoops to jump through to allow the site in question, which doesn't add itself as an exception on the Vanilla whitelist, if you want that, that's an extra step.

Yes, You have to have Chrome/ Chromium set to accept cookies. You whitelist the cookies you want to keep.
I have it set so that all unwanted cookies (non-whitelisted one) automatically delete on restart of browser, and this works well for me, as I open and close my browser often daily. I feel it works well for me and is very simple to use.