Tag Archives: cookies

Panda Security

Spring Cleaning: Get Rid of Those Cookies from Your Browser!

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Pretty much every day, you accept a few new cookie warnings without actually reading them. Websites are required to inform you that they’re storing cookie files that gather data about your preferences on your own computer. The European Commission has just proposed to simplify these warnings. In addition to cookies that websites create, the memory cached on your browser stores temporary files so that pages load more quickly.

All those cookies start to pile up, believe it or not. Your computer can actually end up getting sluggish after gorging on all those digital cookies. Now that I’ve put it into perspective for you, you can appreciate the seriousness of the situation.

Sometimes what we chalk up to possible malware is actually just an information overload slowing down your browser. That’s why it is recommendable that you do a little bit of tidying up every now and again and clean out the cookie cache. And if you use a shared computer, this could have the additional benefit of protecting your privacy.

Chrome, Firefox, Edge… How Do I Clear Out the Cookies?

Chrome

In the case of Chrome, the most popular browser, you have the option in the icon of the three vertical points located at the top right of the window. Just click the icon and go to More tools and Clear browsing data. Chrome allows you to select the exact information you want to delete: you can delete cookies, files and cached images, browsing history or passwords, and specify a date range. It also offers an alternative path from Settings, Show Advanced Settings and Privacy.

Firefox

To remove your little trail of crumbs in Mozilla Firefox, click on the icon of the three horizontal stripes and select History and Clear recent history. You’ll see a window that allows you to decide the time period for which you’d like to do the cleaning. From the Details tab, you can choose the information you want to delete. And from the same menu, you can access Options, Privacy and History. There you will find the option “Use a custom configuration” for the history, which allows you to decide which browsing data will be cleared when Firefox closes.

Safari

For their part, users of Apple computers can clean out the Safari browser from the Preferences and Privacy menus. Among the available options are to change the configuration of cookies and accepted data from certain websites, delete information of specific pages individually or all at the same time, and see which sites store that data in Details.

Edge

If you’ve already installed Windows 10 on your computer, you’re sure to have saved personal information on Microsoft Edge. To clean it, select More, Settings (the little gear), Clear scan data and check the boxes of the data you want to delete in Choose what to delete. From Advanced Settings you can tell Edge to stop collecting or storing certain information.

Opera

Finally, Opera users remove cookies and clear the cache much like users of Chrome. By clicking on the icon at the top right of the window, you can click Delete browsing data and select the items you want to delete and from when you want to delete them.

Now you know where to find the virtual duster on your personal or corporate computer, so go and do some spring cleaning!

The post Spring Cleaning: Get Rid of Those Cookies from Your Browser! appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

AVG

Introducing Crumble – Surf Without Surveillance

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We are happy to announce Crumble, a brand new Chrome extension designed by our colleagues from the Innovation Labs. The extension, currently in beta, will prevent companies from tracking you on the Internet via cookies, without breaking the websites you visit.

You can install the extension for free from here: Crumble Chrome extension.

Crumble

While this is not the first solution of its kind, we do think that our implementation makes Crumble the best solution against online cookie tracking.  Here’s why:

  • Stops online tracking companies from creating your profile via cookies based on your online browsing
  • It’s always up to date because it does not rely on a predefined list of online trackers.
  • By design does not offer preferential treatment to selected ad networks (unlike some other extensions)
  • Does not break the user experience on websites you visit
  • Does not hide any content on the websites you visit
  • Shows instantly who is tracking you on websites you visit

Download Crumble

How does it work?

Crumble intercepts 3rd party cookies and controls what information is sent back to the web tracking companies.  This way we can prevent trackers from following and profiling you based on the sites you visit.

Because, we manage rather than block 3rd party cookies, this means you will always get the full website experience; no broken plugins, no missing content, no weird behavior.

But wait! There’s more! Unlike other extensions that promise you a similar thing, we are doing all this by identifying the type of the cookie and not by keeping a blacklist of trackers. This allows us to block any new tracker as soon as it appears. No waiting time, no updating any list. Instant action.

This also means that we do not offer preferential treatment to trackers (aka whitelist them) unlike some other extensions.

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Get in touch

This is Beta release from Innovation Labs by AVG. For more info you can find FAQ section of our website.

We would also love to hear your feedback at support.innovation [@] avg.com or tweet us @avginnovation.

 

Avast

Online privacy protection in the EU

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It’s European ‪#‎DataProtection day! Every day we visit websites and willingly hand over our name, address, and credit card number. Have you ever thought about what happens to that data or what your rights are?

European ‪#‎DataProtection‬ day

Avast keeps your personal data private.

 

Members of the European Union (EU) enjoy a high standard of protection of their personal data. The Digital Agenda for Europe lays it all out for you on their website. Here’s a summary:

The burden to protect you is on organizations

The EU Data Protection Directive ensures that personal data can only be gathered under strict conditions and for legitimate purposes. Organizations that collect and manage your personal information must also protect it from misuse and respect certain rights. One of the objectives is that organizations notify their customers, in plain language, what information is collected and how it is used as well as get permission before using any personal information.

One of the stumbling blocks has been the so-called one-stop-shop for businesses and citizens in each member state in which authorities will handle citizens’ complaints about any breach of the rules. There are just as many ideas on how to run it as there are EU member states.

You must be notified of cookies and data breaches

The Directive on Privacy and Electronic communications (ePrivacy Directive) ensures that all communications over public networks maintain a high level of privacy. For example, this directive requires website owners marketing online to EU citizens to obtain consent from users, via some kind of opt-in, before implementing cookies or other technologies to capture online visitor information. (See below for information on managing your cookies.)

If your data is stolen, the ePrivacy Directive states that you should be notified. That’s good because data theft can result in identity theft or fraud, damage to your reputation, loss of control over your personal data or a loss of confidentiality.

However, this fall, the rules changed slightly and now businesses don’t have to notify consumers that their personal data has been lost or stolen if the data has been encrypted. The ministers figure that the business has “appropriate technological protection measures” to protect the data that has been lost or stolen from being accessed by people not authorized to see it.

Viewing and managing your cookies

For those of you not familiar with the term, cookies are small files stored in your browser that contain information about your visit to a web page. They help tailor your online shopping experiences by doing things such as recording items in your shopping cart, they also recommend products based on your interests, allow auto-log in and compile browsing histories.

In most modern browsers, you can control cookie settings. The options include viewing stored cookies, controlling which sites you accept cookies from, and setting how long they may be stored and used.

Chrome

  1. 1. Open the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the Chrome browser, select Settings.
  2. 2. At the bottom of the page, click Show advanced settings.
  3. 3. In the Privacy section, open the button that says Content settings.
  4. 4. Under Cookies, you check or uncheck the options to manage the settings.
  5. 5. To see individual cookies, click All cookies and site data.
  6. 6. To remove cookies, hover the mouse over the entry. Click the X to delete.
  7. 7. To delete all cookies, click Remove all.

Firefox

For instructions to clear cookies in Firefox, please visit Mozilla’s support page.

Chrome

For instructions on clearing and managing cookies in Internet Explorer, please search Microsoft help for your version of IE. Here’s general information.