How to Delete Privacy-Invading Flash Cookies

Report · May 09, 2009

Adobe is, in my opinion, intentionally deceptive on a number of levels about the privacy-invading cookies that Flash stores on your machine. These are NOT the cookies that get deleted when you clear your browser cache. These cookies remain on your machine until you MANUALLY DELETE THEM. And Adobe know that most users are not technically proficient enough to even find where they exist.There is a good site that describes how to get rid of them here:

http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/30/delete-flash-cookies/

The Flash cookies:

Stay on your computer for an unlimited amount of time
Store 100 kb of data by default, with an unlimited max
Can’t be deleted by your browser
Send previous visit information and history, by default, without your permission

This type of cookie exists on 98% of global computers, across all operating systems. it’s the Adobe Flash Player.

The news about these cookies needs to be spread far and wide.

Furthermore, the lame website that Adobe provides seems intentionally designed to make you THINK that you are deleting these cookies, when in fact the folders in which they are contained - which list EVERY WEBSITE YOU EVER VISITED THAT USED FLASH - remain on your machine. Moreover, when you clear your private data from your browser, THE FLASH SETTINGS ARE RESET AGAIN TO THE PRIVACY-INVADING DEFAULTS, AND THE COOKIES WILL CONTINUE TO COME IN. I believe that Adobe is being intentionally and criminally deceptive about the privacy-invading nature of what they, in conjunction with the companies they obviously have some kind of arrangement with, are putting on your computer.

To get rid of Adobe's deceptive privacy-invading cookies, go to the following locations on your machine, and MANUALLY DELETE THEM. It is the ONLY way to get rid of the privacy-invading TRASH that Adobe puts on your machine, without your knowledge or permission:

Windows: LSO files are stored typically with a “.SOL” extension, within each user’s Application Data directory, under Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects.
Mac OS X: For Web sites, ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player. For AIR Applications, ~/Library/Preferences/[package name (ID) of your app].
GNU-Linux: ~/.macromedia

But wait - there's more! Adobe goes one step farther - there is yet ANOTHER folder where YOUR ENTIRE BROWSING HISTORY OF WEBSITES THAT USED FLASH is stored:

On Mac OSX, to finally get rid of all the web history tracking that Adobe does, you must also go to the following location:

~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/macromedia.com/Support/flashplayer/sys

For Windows:

Application Data (hidden file - be sure to turn on hidden files and folders in Windows to see it)/macromedia.com/Support/flashplayer/sys

There you will find YET AGAIN, another complete list of all the sites you visited, and all the time you wasted dicking around with Adobe's fake "settings manager" thing will not make a single bit of difference.

This is not the first time Adobe has been busted installing, without user knowledge or permission, spyware, and other items that "phone home", for example, Photoshop, Dreamweaver. etc. They both phone home to a very shady, in my opinion, company, using an INTENTIONALLY DECEPTIVE IP address that mimics a local network call. Just google "photoshop and spyware" to get the details.

Personally, I will not ever be giving ONE PENNY of my money to this company ever again. At work, or at home, I am NEVER going to buy or download another application made by this totally, in my opinion, untrustworthy company. If you need to edit photos, without scumware and shady companies that want to track your online behavior, download the open source tool called GIMP. If you nee to read PDFs, there are loads of apps besides Adobe's reader that will do the same thing much better.

I think these people belong in court to explain why they are so intentionally invading users' privacy. I hope someone starts a class-action suit against these dirtbags.

To the apologists who will come here and try to say how wonderful it is that Adobe tracks your every move on the Internet: Go find someone who gives a damn about your moron brain-damaged alcoholic opinion.

Report · May 09, 2009

And before all the folks come up here saying that shared objects (i.e., Flash cookies) are just for storing your game settings or other fun stuff, have a look at this:

"United Virtualities is offering online marketers and publishers technology that attempts to undermine the growing trend among consumers to delete cookies planted in their computers.

According to JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corp., 58 percent of Internet users have deleted [their normal web browser] cookies, essentially making many consumers anonymous during site visits. In addition, 39 percent of consumers are deleting cookies from their primary computer monthly.

United Virtualities's PIE helps combat this consumer behavior by leveraging a feature in Flash MX called local shared objects. Flash MX is a Macromedia Inc. application for developing multimedia Web content, user interfaces and Web applications. The technology runs on a Flash Player that the company says is deployed on 98 percent of Internet-capable computers.

When a consumer goes to a PIE-enabled website, the visitor's browser is tagged with a Flash object that contains a unique identification similar to the text found in a traditional cookie. In this way, PIE acts as a cookie backup, and can also restore the original cookie when the consumer revisits the site.

While consumers have learned to delete cookies, most are unaware of shared objects, and don't know how to disable them.

Mookie Tanembaum, founder and chief executive of United Virtualities, says the company is trying to help consumers by preventing them from deleting cookies that help website operators deliver better services.

"The user is not proficient enough in technology to know if the cookie is good or bad, or how it works," [CEO] Tanembaum said."

What an arrogant schmuck.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160400749

Report · May 25, 2009

thanks for your post - I can vouch - I've had the same experience and I am not even pissed anymore, I am in more of a state of terror, seriously, about "what's next?!?" On my Mac I just laughed when I saw that ridiculous control panel Adobe directs you to to choose your own settings - I mean it looks like a comic strip. It is the worst flash animation I have ever seen. And you expect me to believe it does anything more than flicker with the colors of the rainbow? yeah right. But I went through the motions, deleted everything on there except my bank stuff because they claim they need it to identify me, and chose, I think it was "ask me" for future additions. A couple weeks later, I found the documentation that listed the path to follow to get to where the SOLs were stored and I was thinking they'll be empty I just set it up a couple weeks ago per "official direction" from Adobe. Guess what? Well, you don't have to guess. The SOL folders and the security folders were chock to the brim with new stuff that got planted AFTER my Adobe visit. I had had enough foolin around, I just deleted the contents of all the folders, as Admin I changed the permissions on all the folders to read only and then locked each one of them and so far so good... but its just been a few weeks.

I remember my parents telling me stories about how some people thought when TV came out, that someone "on the other end" could see them and watch them. Well, I think that's knocking on our door right now and we have Adobe to thank for that too with those lovely Flash dialogue boxes that pop up ever so randomly, most times I will say they are invited invitations, but others... I am talking about the dialogue boxes that ask your permission to use your web cam if you have one and your mic. I can't speak for the entire population of computer users but I am constantly multitasking between computer and my writing and laying on the bed and my dog, he's bart, demanding attention that'd I'd be an ideal candidate for accidentally hitting the track pad on my lap top one time too many as I scuffle with the dog and not even seeing the dialogue box at all and viola... "you're on Candid Camera!"

Oh but my real thanks is for the link back to that article from that CRAZY marketing group and the audacity they have to issue such a release. It's unfathomable to me: people think they are navigating the internet with a little more knowledge than they had before and so they feel safer, they prune the evil Google cookies like clockwork, they block all third party advertising cookies, they have Firefox set to warn them should visit a site that is less than nice... I mean what else can you expect the average person to do? And here comes some guy who sounds like a cult leader reassuring high tech marketing people and developers that everything is under control, do not worry, the minions are all inline, we have found a secret way for you to get back to mining their data and tracking their web habits, wahahahahahaha, and they shall never know!

Report · Nov 10, 2009

Flash Player has a security policy that prevents one site from accessing the data from another site, so what's the big deal? Um, just a thought, but why not only enter information on websites you trust?

I can hear the question... "But what about the bugs? There might be exploits, hacks, loopholes! How can I possibly trust Adobe to keep my information safe from cross-site hijackers?!?!"

All I can say is if you can't trust Adobe to keep your data safe, you obviously can't trust any other big software company. So you could never be sure of the saftey of your information, even when you're authoring a word document or sending an email.

That said, clearing your cookies/SharedObjects certainly isn't a bad thing. Unless you want websites to remember you, like I do. That's what Tanembaum was talking about - most people don't realize that cookies are just as secure as, say, Flash Player itself. There are just as many exploits for Flash Player as there are for cookies. (Yeah - uninstall Flash Player. It'll fix the problem, alright.)

It would be nice if Adobe would get their act together and appease the security-freaks. But really, if you're that concerned about security, don't enter your information into a website at all.

Report · Nov 10, 2009

In Firefox, (the only browser I'll use, cept maybe Opera), theres an add-on called "Betterprivacy", (all one word) go to the addons and install it, it automatically deletes the LSO (Lasting Spy Objects) when you close the browser. I install it on ALL new machines I send out now along with the addon "Cookie Safe", which does the same thing to regular spyware cookies. (Note,Betterprivacy is pretty much setup on install, cookie safe needs a bit of tweaking, as it comes up allowing the privacy-stealing cookies to fluorish. Setup in intutive once you open the 'options'.