The negative, and quite deserved, connotation centers around 3rd party cookies. By and large, 3rd party cookies have privacy or tracking concerns. These cookies aid in advertisers generating a nice profile based on the information they collect as you traverse from site to site. Worse, this process tends to happen in the background unbeknownst to the users. Web browsers today tend to still allow full cookie access to any site that requests it. However it doesn’t have to be that way – why don’t we take back some control and decide just who can send us those cookies?
Modern browsers have pretty decent cookie control today – the main problem is they are shipped in a default state that is quite open and accepting. Instead, a great option to gather an understanding of what, when, and where a web site initiates a cookie request is to instruct the browser to issue a prompt on each attempt. After a few days or weeks, you will have assembled a white-list of allowed sites at which point you can configure the browser to ignore subsequent requests.
In Firefox, navigate to Tools->Options and then access the Privacy tab. Within the History section change the drop-down to read Use custom settings for history. At this point you will see some options relating to browser history and also cookie handling. You will want to accept cookies from sites but un-check accept third-party cookies. If you notice the Exceptions button you can manually assemble a white-list on a site by site basis but this can be tedious. Instead, a better option is to adjust the keep until drop-down by choosing ask me every time. At this point, every cookie attempt will prompt you for what action to take. You can ignore it or at this point, white-list the site automatically. After some time – you will want to return here and choose to not accept any cookie.
Internet Explorer is much the same – Tools (or the gear icon) -> Internet Options -> Privacy. Under the Advanced button click override automatic cookie handling, then block third-party cookies, while prompting for first-party cookies. Assemble your white-list for a week or so before returning to this section and blocking everything outright.
Finally we arrive to Google Chrome. It is here we learn of something quite tragic – cookie handling is extremely sparse in its implementation (very interesting Google …). All is not lost however; by using the extension Vanilla Cookie Manager the prompt for cookie handling can be introduced within the browser address bar – not unlike the handling of blocked pop-ups. Otherwise, you can assemble a white-list manually like the other browsers through [wrench] -> Options then Under the Hood. Within the Privacy section click Content settings …
