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Learn how to block third-party cookies in major web browsers

  • September 30, 2022
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Despite the bad reputation they come to drag, cookies They are essential to have a good internet browsing experience. Privacy advocates have criticized them on many occasions, but

Despite the bad reputation they come to drag, cookies They are essential to have a good internet browsing experience. Privacy advocates have criticized them on many occasions, but without them browsing the web can be inconvenient, forcing users to fill out an access form every time they want to log into a forum or social network, for example.

However, despite their usefulness and the convenience they provide, it is no less true that many cookies, especially those from the advertising industry, are used in a pernicious, abusive and non-transparent way. So, to improve the picture, Google created FLoC, a mechanism by which the search giant intended to at least relieve third-party cookies. FLoC provided security improvements on paper, an aspect in which cookies have always been questioned, but its origin and the apparent favoritism it exerted in favor of the creators’ company caused it to be rejected by Brave, Vivaldi, DuckDuckGo and Mozilla.

Thanks Chrome Google itself is strong enough to implement FLoC, but eventually the company decided to abandon it and replace it with Themes. While FLoC worked by grouping users into groups with similar interests, Topics relies on the browser to learn about the interests of its users as they browse the web. Obviously, the goal is to replace third-party cookies.

After discussing FLoC, we have already touched on the most complex part of this topic: third-party cookies. These cookies do not belong to the website that is loaded in the browser and are responsible for displaying the advertisement. But sometimes they end up implementing tracking features that lead to advertising targeted to users based on their browsing history, giving the impression that the Internet is some kind of Big Brother that apparently knows too much about our lives.

As we see third-party cookies spark privacy controversy, Mozilla introduced Total Cookie Protection in Firefox some time ago., which is responsible for isolating the cookies used by the website in its own “jar”, preventing them from being tracked by other websites. In this way, user privacy is enhanced by apparently preventing cross-tracking.

Third-party cookies will always be in the eye of the storm as a legacy of the World Wide Web’s design, which was created more to facilitate the transfer of data and information than to protect user privacy, so we’ll explain how to explicitly block them in major browsers.

Google Chrome

we start with Google Chrome, the world’s most used web browser and perhaps the most criticized by privacy advocates. Although it comes from Chromium, which is released as free software, the use of the three-clause BSD license allows the creation of proprietary derivatives, so the Chrome source code is not available. This allows Google to introduce tracking and other mechanisms that may not be easily detectable and are not present in Chromium.

Leaving the political part aside, yes, it is possible to block third-party cookies in Google Chrome. To do this, go to the “Privacy and security” section in the settings, click on “Cookies and other site data” and select “Block third-party cookies”. The application is responsible for explaining the possible consequences of its use.

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a little more complicated in this regard, which adds to the fact Full cookie protection is enabled by default. However, it is important to note that this feature does not initially block third-party cookies, but blocks their cross-tracking across sites.

To block third-party cookies in Firefox, open your web browser’s Settings, click the “Privacy and Security” section, select “Custom” under “Enhanced tracking protection,” and on some sites, specify “All third-party cookies ( may cause errors). )” in the Cookies option. In addition, it would be advisable to block trackers, cryptometers and fingerprintsthe last are fingerprints generated using canvas/ HTML5 canvases that are drawn according to user navigation.

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge tried to position itself as a technological alternative to Chromium and Firefox, but after it was not well received by users, the Redmond giant changed course and adopted Chromium. The truth is that it hasn’t fared badly in terms of user quota since establishing itself as the second most used in the desktop sector, albeit light years behind Chrome’s numbers.

In short, Microsoft Edge and Chrome share the same rendering core, but the company responsible for Windows introduces many modifications that integrate some of its technologies and adapt them to its design lines. As a result, we have an application that looks very different and in which the configuration is organized in a different way.

To block third-party cookies in Microsoft Edge, you must do the following: Main menu (…) > Settings > “Cookies and site permissions” section > “Cookies and shared data”. The option we’re interested in is there, although it may take a bit of careful reading to find it.

Opera

And we come to the most used web browser among minorities. Switching to Chromium from Opera It lost a lot of users back then due to the loss of features, but over the years it has gained more loyal ones. While it’s true that at first it was little more than a Chrome clone (which in turn is nothing more than Chromium with some ingredients), today it’s an app with a lot more personality.

Blocking third-party cookies is done from the main menu and go to “Go to full browser settings“. Once inside, select the section “Privacy and security” on the left and then go to “Cookies and other website data” where the option is “Block third-party cookies”.

brave

bravethe Chromium-based web browser created by Brendan Eich, the “father” of JavaScript and a person associated with Mozilla for many years, is an app that stands out by offering decent privacy settings and allowing paying users to display ads even though making a living from it is de facto impossible.

Brave doesn’t implement as many changes at the interface level compared to the original Chromium, so the path to follow is similar to Chrome: Main Menu > Settings > “Privacy & Security” > “Cookies and Other Site Data” > “Block Cookies from third parties”. The interesting thing about this case is that this feature is already enabled by defaultso the user doesn’t have to do anything in this regard, but it never hurts to check that everything is fine.

Vivaldi

And we conclude our list Vivaldi, a Chrome-based web browser for advanced users created by former Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. It’s an app with a lot of features and customization options, so it clashes with the minimalism trend that’s been in the industry for the last decade.

I can’t deny that Vivaldi is impressive, and it also has significant privacy options, including a blocker against trackers and ads. After entering the Browser Settings via the main menu, you mustGo to the “Privacy and Security” section and scroll down until you find the cookie settings where the user must select “Block All” so third-party ones are blocked both in incognito and standard browsing.

conclusion

As we can see, it is not difficult to improve the level of privacy when browsing the web, especially when it comes to putting some barriers to some companies dedicated to collecting data that do not correspond to them on paper, adding to the targeted advertising machinery, which, depending on the case, can become somewhat aggressive and invasive.

Obviously, what is exposed here is only a small percentage of all the measures a user could take to improve their level of privacy, but the steps are simple enough that anyone can do them.

Source: Muy Computer

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