On Wed, 03 Feb 2016 23:25:33 +1030 Tim ignored_mailbox@yahoo.com.au wrote:
Allegedly, on or about 02 February 2016, Robin Laing sent:
There was an issue with poorly written sites opening hundreds of cookie requests.
Sometimes I think sites do that on purpose, to attack people who selectively choose their cookies.
I used to use the option to ask about all cookies, but caved-in to changing the preferences to allowing cookies for just one session (expunge on exit), thanks to crap like that (that option will probably disappear, too).
Unfortunately, this means you get tracked, and you get more internet crap in your mail, and targeted adverts, from that. It's quite disturbing to find while you're browsing some site that you consider to be completely unrelated to something else that you logged into early, that you've been identified by the earlier sites (you don't get asked to sign in, to the sites you browse, later on, there's a "hello Tim" already in that spot).
I doubt that you are experiencing traditional cookie tracking. There are two other ways of tracking that are much more effective: flash cookies and html5 storage.
The add-on betterprivacy removes flash cookies (LSO cookies) whenever the browser is closed, or with other settings, including a timer.
The add-on self-destructingcookies removes cookies whenever a site is closed (the site tab, not the browser).
You should look at an add-on called privacy badger. It is sort of AI, and monitors links. If they exhibit behavior that a tracking site would, it blocks them. I can no longer read the site forbes.com because it thinks I have adblocker turned on. I don't, but privacy badger is blocking the ad trackers that would allow ads, so they don't show up.
Unfortunately, I'm not aware of an add-on that blocks html5 storage. Html5 allows websites to store their information on your computer in a reserved area. I presume it was justified with some kind of persistence or convenience argument, but I think it is inviting abuse. I remember that I went into about:config and turned off html5 storage somehow, but I don't remember the details; I think I just searched on html5 and there was an entry with storage that I set to false, but it might have been setting the storage size to zero.
Never!, I repeat never!, allow the site addthis.com to access your computer. It uses browser fingerprinting to track your web usage. NoScript seems to adequately prevent it, and I think privacybadger has it blocked out of the box.
If you don't go with PrivacyBadger, Ghostery is also a good way to block third party tracking sites, though it uses a look up list rather than real time determination.
HTH