New Firefox Add-on for privacy friendly Cookie Settings

2016/05/02

Add-on by Research Group SECUSO guides users to choose the right options

“Privacy friendly cookie settings” is an add-on for the Mozilla Firefox browser. It is designed to help users to select privacy-friendly cookie settings for their browser. The add-on was developed as part of the thesis of Benjamin Reinheimer.

The add-on is especially designed for users who are not familiar with this issue and want to learn something about it. First, the the add-on explains what cookies are and how they are used. It specifically addresses the difference between so-called third-party cookies.

The user can choose out of three options to deal with cookies. The first option prevents third-party cookies from being stored in the future. In this case, as also in the other two options, the advantages and limitations are mentioned. This option has a few limitations, but prevents that third parties can create user profiles of the users' surfing and purchasing interests. However, it must be noted that already stored third-party cookies will not be affected.

For this reason, there is the second option. When the user selects this option, all cookies, including third-party cookies, are deleted, when clicking on “Ok”. This prevents that existing third-party cookies can still create profiles of the users. It should be noted that the user may again have to sign in to sites where he was already signed in.

The third option exceeds the second one. When the user selects it, all cookies will be automatically deleted when closing the browser. Therefore it's even more difficult for third parties to create surfing profiles of the user. However, it also means that the user has to sign in again, each time he opens the browser again.

Download the add-on

You can download the add-on for free from the official Mozilla Store.