Adobe Flash animations are used in many of the most popular web sites. The Adobe Flash plug-in can be used to store information in Local Shared Objects, or “Flash cookies,” which are very different from traditional browser cookies. Traditional cookie behavior can be controlled through settings in your browser, or deleted after the fact using a utility such as CCleaner. Flash cookies are browser-independent, meaning multiple browsers on the same computer can use the same Flash cookies. Flash cookies can also store a great deal more information (100 KB compared to the 4 KB browser cookie limit).

Wired.com recently reported that many of the popular sites which use Flash cookies do not indicate their use in their privacy policies, which certainly raises privacy concerns.

Firefox users can control Flash behavior overall using the NoScript add-on. Adobe does give users access to a per-website Flash Cookie behavior control panel through their website, but this is very inconvenient.

Firefox add-on BetterPrivacy is an easy and effective method of controlling Flash cookies. By default, BetterPrivacy will delete any Flash cookies when you close Firefox. You can also selectively choose to “protect” certain Flash cookies in BetterPrivacy so they do not get deleted.

Bottom Line: The popularity of Flash cookies are one more reason to consider protecting your online privacy. Using Firefox with BetterPrivacy is a great way to strike a balance between protecting yourself and the ease of use of a well-designed add-on. Keep Flash cookies under control with BetterPrivacy.