Cookie Controller Gives Firefox Users Control Over Cookies

Cookies have been designed as means to store data on a client’s system. They are used to store session information or preferences for instance, and are nowadays also used for tracking purposes. While there are some attempts to better protect users from tracking, like Mozilla’s Do Not Track preference, cookie handling mostly has remained the same over the years.

If you look at the Firefox browser, you will notice that users can accept or deny first and third party cookies, use exceptions for selected sites, and configure when cookies should be deleted by the browser.

The Firefox add-on Cookie Controller improves the cookie handling in the browser through three status bar icons. Firefox users who install the add-on need to drag and drop some or all of the icons to the status bar, or another location where icons can be placed. The easiest way to do that is to right-click the status bar, select customize from the context menu, and to drag and drop the cookie related icons from the customization window into the browser’s interface.

The first button lets you define cookie permissions for the site you are on currently. You can configure each site to allow or deny cookies, and if cookies are allowed whether they should be stored until the end of the session or until they expire.

You can also list all cookies from that particular domain, and remove DOM and session cookies as well from the context menu. The context menu links to the cookies and exceptions menu of the Firefox browser as well.

The second button displays the number of cookies for the current host and globally, and allows you to browse through the cookies, and to delete cookies individually or in bulk.

The third and final button displays global cookie settings, and allows you to change those global settings with a single click.

The system is actually rather complicated at the beginning, as you need to get your head around the three icons and what they offer in terms of functionality. Once you start to get the hang out of the add-on, you can use it for a number of different asks. From configuring site specific cookie permissions over cleaning specific cookies to quickly changing the global cookie permissions.

Firefox users can download and install Cookie Controller from the official Mozilla Add-ons repository.

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CS Lite Firefox Cookie Manager About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Saturday February 25, 2012 -
Tags:cookies, firefox add-on

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RequestPolicy For Firefox Gives You Control Over Cross-Site Connections

The majority of websites make connections to other domains when you connect them. Examples are a site that is using Google Analytics for web statistics or Google Adsense for monetization, embeds videos from YouTube, or uses a content distribution network. Sometimes these requests are needed to use all of a site’s functionality. Amazon for instance loads contents from images-amazon.com. While it is still possible to use the site, part of the site’s functionality is not available until you permit that connection.

RequestPolicy for the Firefox web browser has been designed to put you back in control over the connections the browser makes. It works in this regard similar to the popular NoScript add-on, but with the difference that it does not prevent onsite scripts from running.

When you first install the add-on, you can add sites to the whitelist. The developer has prepared international and location specific lists.

The majority of suggestions allow connections between sites by the same company. Examples are to allow google.com connections when you are on gmail, or fbcdn.net connections when you are on Facebook. These can significantly reduce issues that users encounter after enabling the add-on in the browser. It is however not necessary to add any site combination to the whitelist.

This whitelist approach is different from NoScripts whitelisting approach, as NoScript allows connections from that domain on all websites, whereas RequestPolicy only allows them on one specific site.

RequestPolicy adds an icon to the Firefox status bar that acts as a control panel and indicator at the same time. A red flag indicates that connections have been blocked on a website. A click on the flag displays information about those connections, and options to temporarily or permanently allow those connections to be made on the current site.

The page is automatically reloaded if you allow connections to be made.

The preferences let you manage the whitelist, export or import settings, and modify the strictness of the add-on. The add-on by default uses base domains, e.g. ghacks.net to allow same-site requests. You can change that to full domain names, e.g. www.ghacks.net, or full addresses instead.

What I personally like most about RequestPolicy is the granular whitelisting which allows you to run the same scripts on some sites but not on others (for instance to show Adsense ads on Ghacks, but not on other sites). It is also less intrusive than NoScript if the whitelisting suggestions are added during setup.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Cross Site Scripting
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HTTPS Everywhere Encrypts Connections, If Possible About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday February 6, 2012 -
Tags:firefox add-ons, noscript

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