Defending against Cookies

What is the risk involved with web cookies? Sounds like the simple answer is to disable cookies and javascript and everything will be fine.

Unfortunately, due to the design of websites nowadays and web apps, it's impossible now for an app to work properly without storing some values on your computer to determine its 'state'. And this storage area is a cookie. So to use most websites properly, you're stuck with the need to use cookies.

On the other hand there are many ways cookies can be abused. There are 'trackers' on each website that keep a record of your actions and associate it with a fingerprint of your computer. The fingerprint is kept in a cookie so the identifier can be referenced again later. Facebook and Google actively do this but so do other Ad companies.

This has gotten so sophisticated that they're now coming up with a 'computer' fingerprint and not just a 'browser' fingerprint. This means you are uniquely identified on the internet.

They keep a database of activity for these identified computers. Once this latches on to some real identity like your name, your email, or your IP address, then you are truly zucked as all the previously anonymous tracking will now be attributed to you.

Fortunately the Electronic Frontier Foundation came up with a learning plugin that detects malicious tracking using cookies. This tool is EFF Privacy Badger. Install this immediately on all your browsers.

Notice that I didn't mention 'Incognito' mode or 'Privacy' mode on a browser. These are just feel good tools that do nothing more than delete the cookie when you're done with the session. The cookies will still exist during the session so tracking will occur. When you login again, the information will match due to browser fingerprinting.