Recently as part of departing from DPReview, I deleted all their cookies and blocked them from planting more.
After that, it was interesting to view this in FireFox:
Been here about 4 weeks and only 56 bytes-worth presumably due to how Misago works, as opposed to the other two on my machine, e.g. XenForo ...
Muuum… just like Elmo, I love cookies. lol
I’ve be managing cookies with this Firefox (112.0.0 64-bit) addon for the last five or six years, works great.
Cookie Quick Manager
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-quick-manager/
For any web site that aims to provide any kind of desktop app like experience, cookies are essential. Web sites are "stateless", without cookies the app would forget who you are when you move from one page to another. It doesn't really matter if you are viewing plain html pages, but for database driven sites, it's effectively essential.
It's such a shame the advertising companies exploit the cookie mechanism to track you around the web. I guess where there is the potential for lots of money to be made, there is a will for some people and damn the consequences. I applaud the EU attempts to get control over cookies and their exploitation for abusing personal privacy, but sadly, the regulations have just led to a bureaucratic nightmare for website owners without much additional privacy. I guess there must be a few people who take the time to read cookies policies, examine the cookies being set and adjusting their preferences, but I can't imagine it's many.
I had a small part to play in the UK public sector response to the cookies regulations as I was on the cross govt working party (more by chance than qualification). It was eye opening to be in the thick of it and to find out how unprepared most webmasters were, how confused the Information Commissioners Office was as to exactly how it was going to manage enforcement, and basically how ineffective the consent mechanism is in curtailing rogue operators. If the regulations were enforced to the letter of the law, rather than the spirit, it would have effectively destroyed the web for people in countries that implemented the regulations. Fortunately, the authorities fuzzed their enforcement to avoid this. Better than nothing? Maybe...
I also remember Adobe Flash (was MacroMedia --something) which had to be on your computer to see animated work. And if you had Flash, you had another set of cookies ... fortunately HTML5 appeared which allowed other non-Adobe media. About then, I rendered my system Adobe-free ...
I don't read the fine print, but I have configured Firefox to disable cookies by default and only "allow for session" for specific sites, and "allow" for specific sites that I don't want to have to sign on to every time I visit.
I also use the NoScript plugin to prevent scripts except for sites I specifically permit.
Yes, the Firefox addon NoScript (11.4.21) is excellent, I’ve been using it for many years.
Control who comes through your front door.
Also… uBlock Origin (1.49.2) removes all of the annoying Ads on Youtube. lol
