Avoiding third party cookies in Firefox 3.5.3
Whenever I install Firefox, one of the tweaks I make to the default configuration is to prevent the use of third party cookies.
Cookies are small files that websites place on your computer, typically to help them keep track of who you are and/or what you're doing on the website. Few people object to these cookies, which are referred to as first party cookies.
But web pages contain ads that come from advertising networks rather than from the website you are visiting. The advertising networks also can place cookies on your computer and those are referred to as third party cookies. People concerned about privacy, and assorted anti-malware software, refers to them as tracking cookies.
When I went to disable third party cookies on a newly installed copy of Firefox v3.5.3, I found that things had changed. The Privacy tab of the Firefox Options (Tools -> Options) has been re-worked in version 3.5.3 (see below). Gone was the checkbox for third party cookies.
Turns out it's not gone, just hiding. To see the cookie options, you need to change the "Remember history" setting to "Use custom settings for history". This is a misnomer, it should really be called "Use custom settings for both history and cookies".
As shown below, this restores the checkbox governing the use of third party cookies.
And, speaking of tweaking Firefox, you can also increase the text size in the address bar and force a green background in the address bar for all HTTPS web pages.Â
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