[tor-talk] What is "cookie protections"?

[Yury Bulka]

Thanks for all the info. Yeah, I browse with third party cookies
disabled. Additionally, I use two windows of TBB - one for the few sites
where I stay logged in, and the other, in Private Browsing mode, for
everything else.

Regarding the "cookie protections" menu item, it only shows up in the
Tor button's menu if the "Don't record history" checkbox is unchecked in
Privacy and Security settings.

Joe Btfsplk <joebtfsplk at gmx.com> writes:

> On 1/8/2016 3:17 PM, Yury Bulka wrote:
>> I've disabled the "Don't
>> record browsing history or website data" check box in the Privacy and
>> Security Settings dialog.
>> There's only one potential danger I see here - cookies.
> In Windows TBB, there's a selection "Use custom settings for history."
> The "Remember my browsing & download history" are handled separately
> from "Accept cookies" (separate check box).
>
> At shut down, TBB deletes all site preferences (Exceptions) & cookies,
> regardless if those are unchecked in "Clear history when Tor browser
> closes" settings.  So that no data is saved across sessions.   If you
> want to selectively delete cookies mid session, you'd have to do it
> manually -  (or use various cookie mgr or cache & cookie mgr addons,
> which isn't recommended by Tor Project). Unless just using TBB for the
> added safety, not maximum anonymity - then using (certain) addons
> probably isn't a super bad thing.
>
> I'm not sure (now days) the possibility of some sites sharing data
> from SESSION cookies.  In the old days, 1st party cookies couldn't be
> read / used by other sites.  Unless maybe if 2 sites were owned by
> same people.
>
> In Firefox & TBB, if check "accept cookies," the "accept 3rd party
> cookies" is automatically checked.
> But, TorButton has checked by default, "Restrict 3rd party cookies &
> other tracking data," so it probably ? overrides 3rd party cookies
> being enabled in the TBB Options > Privacy screen.
> Then I'm not sure why TBB automatically check the 3rd party cookie
> box, if "Accept Cookies" under Privacy tab is checked, if the
> TorButton is set to prevent 3rd party cookies.  It's confusing (I
> don't think it should).
>
> Short of using addons to save cookie exceptions or cookies between
> sessions, one could store cookie exceptions in a separate
> permissions.sqlite file - in another location.  If paranoid, encrypt
> it -  then decrypt it & copy to the TBB profile before launching TBB.
>
>
>> This is why I'd like to understand what is the "Cookie protections"
>> dialog about.
>   In Windows TBB, I don't see settings called "Cookie Protections."