589417 - A separate expire setting for third-party cookies would be nice

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core :: Networking: Cookies, enhancement)

Description

[Da' Nard]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0b5pre) Gecko/20100820 Minefield/4.0b5pre
Build Identifier: 

Under privacy settings, it would be nice to be able to select to retain only first party cookies and to delete third-party cookies at the end of the browsing session. In this way I wouldn't lose all my preferences every time but I could be assured that advertising sites and trackers lost all record of me.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Michael Newton]

Yes, this would be a nice way to address privacy concerns of many users. Is there any interest in this?

Comment 2

[Brendan Butterworth]

This bug may be redundant based Bug 818340.

Comment 3

[AMA3]

I would really like to see this feature added!  In the meantime, let me offer this tedious and roundabout suggestion to users who want to delete third party cookies upon exit without losing their preferred cookies:

(1) Launch Firefox.
(2) In Options > Privacy, clear all of your cookies.
(3) In Options > Privacy, set Keep until to "they expire".
(4) Click "OK" on the Options dialog.
(5) Visit the sites for which you want to keep cookies permanently, making sure to take whatever action is necessary (logging in, choosing options, etc) to set your preferences.
(6) Close Firefox.
(7) Wait a few seconds for the bits to settle to the bottom of your computer.
(8) Launch Firefox.
(9) In Options > Privacy, set Keep until to "I close Firefox".
(10) Still in Options > Privacy, click "Show Cookies..."
(11) Delete all of the third-party cookies that were installed during your previous browsing (in other words, only leave the cookies that you want to retain your preferences).
(12) Close the Cookies dialog.
(13) Click "OK" on the Options dialog.
(14) Close Firefox.
(15) Wait for the bits to settle.

From then on, all of your cookies will be deleted when you close Firefox EXCEPT THE ONES THAT WERE SET WHEN "they expire" WAS ACTIVE.

Comment 4

[gaby de wilde]

I would like to sort of ring the alarm bell on this one. I think the new laws against cookies are directly related to what a terrible cookie manager people are expected to use. If we are going to waste peoples time in such a generous way, then people are going to create laws to stop us from doing exactly that. We should understand that is how it happened.

I think it was important enough to require a fix 10 years ago. Peoples personal information is now spread out all over the internet and nothing was done to make preserving the privacy any easier.

I think law makers responded very mildly to seemingly intentional advertising personal information against their wishes.

"let me offer this tedious and roundabout suggestion to users who want to delete third party cookies upon exit without losing their preferred cookies"

That solution is not good. The things the bookmark manager is suppose to do are so simple that you can chose from many 3d party application.

Like for example this thing:

http://www.piriform.com/docs/ccleaner/ccleaner-settings/choosing-which-cookies-to-keep

* It iterates over the list of cookies, then it deletes those not listed to be preserved. 

* It also detects cookies that might be login credentials. 

* Firefox, knowing the saved passwords, could populate the list automatically.

* It would also be nice to have a search box that suppresses not matching entries, 

* a date column to sort by

* and Ctrl or Shift click to select multiple entries.

Thanks and good luck.