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Cookies - Network

Discussion in 'Security and Privacy' started by Isamudai, 2015/04/16.

  1. 2015/04/16
    Isamudai

    Isamudai Inactive Thread Starter

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    I just have one question that apparently Google can't answer. I apologize for my ignorance.

    I have been told by someone who is also on my home network (LAN) that there are some government sites that can put permanent cookies on your computer. Is this even possible? I've never heard of them before, and I would think that there has to be some way to remove them. Would they also stay after reformatting your computer?

    I was also told, by the same person, that those cookies can, and will travel through the LAN network, and save on my computer. This, to me, seemed even more impossible. I was under the impression that cookies only save to the specific computer that visited a website. Next thing I was wondering was "Is that even legal? ". I would assume that saving a permanent cookie on someone's computer through the LAN network, without consent would be breaking some kind of privacy law. Please supply as much information, and sources (if you can) as possible.

    Questions simplified:
    • Are there 100% permanent cookies?
    • Can said 100% permanent cookies forcibly saved on another computer (that didn't visit the website) through a network?
    • Is there any way to delete those cookies, if they do exist?



    Thank you for your time, and once again, I apologize for my ignorance.
     
    Isamudai,
    #1
  2. 2015/04/16
    MrBill

    MrBill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    What Government?
     
    MrBill,
    #2


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  4. 2015/04/17
    Isamudai

    Isamudai Inactive Thread Starter

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    Sorry, I knew I forgot something.

    United States.
     
    Isamudai,
    #3
  5. 2015/04/17
    MrBill

    MrBill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Don't know about what you are asking, but wouldn't surprise me in the least.

    Don't bother me in the least. While they are being bored at looking at my stuff, they may be missing somebody else's good stuff.
     
    MrBill,
    #4
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  6. 2015/04/17
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Some US Govt Websites use cookies. For example, irs.gov uses cookies. These are temporary text files, they are not permanent. It IS possible that ANY site can put permanent cookies on your computer.

    Any site can set a cookie on your computer providing your browser is set to accept cookies. One standard field in a cookie is "expiration date ". A cookie can be set that expires well into the future.

    A cookie, temporary OR permanent, can be put on your computer by visiting any Website, either by the site you visit or by another domain. For example, you visit the site yahoo.com, and on that page is an advertisement put there from my-adserver.net. You can set your browser to not accept 3rd party cookies and you will not get a cookie from my-adserver.net. But if my-adserver.net is using Evercookies you WILL get a permanent cookie from my-adserver.net. The ONLY way to prevent Evercookies is to completely disable javascript and cookies in your browser(s).

    There are cookies known as "Evercookies ". These are specially crafted cookies that are very hard to delete. They are usually set using javascript and/or Flash Objects. If your Adobe Flash Player settings (Control Panel > Flash Player > Local Storage) allow local objects to be stored then you probably have Evercookies on your computer. Such a Flash object will recreate its cookie after you delete browser cookies. Similar for Microsoft Silverlight.

    As for the US Govt using Evercookies, why would they need to do that? The NSA and other agencies already can monitor all of your online activity and cell phone activity without needing to access cookies.

    More about Evercookies.

    Very few programs exist that can delete Evercookies. Bleachbit is one that can delete them. CCleaner cannot.

    Cookies are NOT shared or sent from one LAN computer to another LAN computer. When you have a LAN and sharing enabled between local computers, mechanisms are utilized to store credentials and permissions, but the mechanisms do not use cookies to store this information.

    On your LAN, Computer A cannot access and read the cookies of Computer B unless both computers have some sort of malware infection. Computer A cannot put cookies onto Computer B, and vice verse.
     
    TonyT,
    #5
  7. 2015/04/17
    MrBill

    MrBill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Do you have 3rd party cookies blocked? I have had them blocked on all my versions of Windows for years and never had a problem.
     
    MrBill,
    #6

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