View Full Version : Spybot 2: Third party cookies and flash cookies?
I think Spybot changes the setting to block third party cookies in Firefox for me. I think there was a popup asking me if I wanted to do it, but I guess it confused me. The pop up never showed up again, and I can't find any setting that disables this thing. I don't want to block third party cookies.
Also, how do you keep Spybot from detecting flash cookies? Can't find any setting for that either.
For the ignoring Flash Cookies part,open Spybot,place a checkmark in Advanced User Mode,double click Settings,select the Ignore List tab.Click Add,then in the white space at the top,type Flash.That should bring Adobe Flash Player cookies to the top of the list,select that with your mouse,click Apply,then Ok.
....and for third party cookies in firefox,this is from the Spybot help file:
Cookies are small pieces of data that websites use to store information on your computer. "Bad" cookies can be used to track a users Internet usage. Rather than remove them after they have been stored on your computer you can choose to block them.
We recommend that you disable all third party cookies. This stops them arriving so you do not have to remove them later.
To undo these changes, the appropriate settings within the affected browsers can be used. These are, for example:
Mozilla Firefox and most clones: type about:config into the address bar. Confirm that you want to continue editing settings. Enter network.cookie.cookieBehavior into the filter box. Double-click and change the value to 0 to get the default behaviour back. All possible settings are explained at mozillaZine (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.cookie.cookieBehavior).
Thanks for the help, I also added Macromedia.Flashplayer.Cookies.
But that thing in about:config seems to be the same thing I have been changing in the firefox setting that keeps changing back.
Tools -> Options -> Privacy / Cookies
"Accept cookies from sites"
Accept third-party cookies
I remember a popup in Spybot 2 asking me to block 3rd party cookies in my browsers, I tried stopping it from doing that but looks like it did it and keeps on doing it.
That setting keeps changing back every day.
After you checkmark Accept third-party cookies,make sure you click OK.If you click the red X to close the window instead of clicking OK,then the setting changes back to what it was before.
Looking through Spybot,I'm not seeing a setting for reversing that.I did find in Settings->Dialogs where you can uncheck it so that Spybot doesn't offer to disable tracking cookies in browsers,but when I tried removing the check,then readding it in,the popup didn't come back up for me to offer to block third party cookies.
I do remember having to change blocking third party cookies in Firefox to get an app to work a long while back when this Spybot was in beta.
If I am remembering this right,I changed Firefox to accept third party cookies within Firefox,and I don't remember having to change anything within Spybot to get it to "stick",because Spybot only changed the setting within Firefox for me,it did nothing to change the setting back,I don't think.Though I may not be remembering that correctly,either.If I do find any settings in Spybot,I'll post them here.
Which version of Firefox do you have?I see in Firefox 17 there are some issues with cookies,however,it doesn't seem to be with disabling or enabling cookies itself,but with Cookie exceptions instead,so that probably isn't the problem:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2621009&sid=e490baa0388c02d3de39676414994e87
Im using firefox 17, release channel.
I'm gonna try reinstalling Spybot, se if i can get the popup to reappear. First I'm gonna reboot without it installed, se if the setting changes. Every time i start spybot, there is a spybot icon in the taskbar. That seems to be the thing that changes the firefox setting. I can't disable that icon from starting with my computer either.
The setting stays if i restart Firefox, but not when restarting the computer.
I tried looking,but couldn't find any teatimer type logfiles for the Spybot icon in the taskbar,so no easy way to find out what it's been up to lately that I can see.
Okay,good luck with the reinstall.Please let me know how it goes.
If I find anything easier to be done for future reference,I'll post it here. :)
This is dated Nov.9th,2012,so should be current:
http://www.safer-networking.org/faq/is-there-any-replacement-for-teatimer-resident/
So,the Spybot icon in the taskbar shouldn't affect anything.
And Sdhelper looks to be only for IE,so that shouldn't affect anything in Firefox,either:
http://www.safer-networking.org/support/first-steps-tutorial/
hth. :)
I've uninstalled version 2 because of this issue and I've been trying to re-enable third party cookies ever since. For some odd reason, there is something that keeps unchecking this option for me in Firefox 17... It is so annoying because a few facebook games are dependent on 3rd party cookies to function properly. The worst part is, I've decided to give up on Spybot, altogether, because of this issue, and it is still haunting me... Any product that haunts me long after I uninstall it leaves an incredibly horrible reputation... The irony is, that's what this program is supposed to help me to accidentally install. :sad:
spybotsandra
2012-11-28, 12:33
Hello,
Have you tried if undoing the immunization fixes the issue?
Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot
Sadly, that is the first thing I've tried. In fact, I even tried re-installing v2, applying immunizations, removing immunizations... reboot (and many combinations of these steps), still nothing... I'm at the point of deleting my FF17 profile and seeing if it helps. I'm slightly reluctant, because it will take a lot of work to rebuild all my profile settings, and even more aggravation if it fails to fix my issue.
I tried uninstalling and rebooting, and that Firefox setting is still changing itself.
This problem with Firefox not remembering this specific setting started just when I started running Spybot 2 for the first time and now its not just me that its happening to so I'm guessing its caused by Spybot 2.
I reinstalled so I could see that block window again and I took a screenshot.
http://i.imgur.com/526GL.png
For some reason it shows two Firefox on that window. One blocked, one not.
That window was a bit confusing, why cant we undo the changes from the spybot program? And why doesn't that window never show up again? You should display something like "currently blocking third party cookies" at the immunization screen with an easy undo, just like the other immunizations.
This is dated Nov.9th,2012,so should be current:
http://www.safer-networking.org/faq/is-there-any-replacement-for-teatimer-resident/
So,the Spybot icon in the taskbar shouldn't affect anything.
And Sdhelper looks to be only for IE,so that shouldn't affect anything in Firefox,either:
http://www.safer-networking.org/support/first-steps-tutorial/
hth. :)
How do i disable it? Is it disabled if all the things under System Integration and System Services are disabled?
I don't want to Spybot to do anything on its own, including putting an icon in the taskbar everytime I start my computer.
I found where you can get the Blocking Third Party Cookies window to show up again in Spybot,when you open Welcome Center,click System scan,then it's over to the left,Disable third party cookies.
I tried to get the same results as you,Forcen,but no luck.I have Firefox 17.0,also.
I normally have Firefox set to accept third party cookies,so I tried blocking 3rd party cookies,restarting firefox a couple times,then restarting my computer twice,and my settings didn't change.
Then,I set Firefox back to accepting third party cookies and did a couple opening and closings of Firefox,and rebooted my computer twice to see if my cookie settings would revert back to not accepting third party cookies,and there was no change there,either.(other than my computer might be feeling a little dizzy.) :laugh:
Maybe the third party cookie setting changing in Firefox is random,and it'll change for me later on.If so,I'll post here.
If you'd like to stop sdtray from showing up on startup,you could disable it in msconfig.
If you're on Vista or Windows 7,click start,type in msconfig,then rightclick msconfig and run as administrator.
If you're on Windows XP,click Start,run,type in msconfig,then click okay.
Click the Startup tab,scroll down to where it says Spybot - Search&Destroy,uncheck it,click apply,and then OK.
For sdhelper,I don't believe that it is installed by default.Open Spybot Welcome Center,checkmark Advanced User Mode,select Settings.Click the System Integration tab.If it says Install beside Internet Explorer integration,then you won't need to do anything further.
Thanks, Zenobia, for the testing you did. However, like Forcen, after trying to enable third-party cookies again, it will revert as soon as I re-open Firefox. I read your post over and over again, to figure out what "exactly" you did to re-enable third-party cookies. I have no luck with my FF17... even after deleting all my FF17 profiles... I am at wits end, and I really do not wish to reload my entire computer from scratch.
Okay, after playing with my Firefox profiles, deleting them, creating new ones, comparing files... Anyway here's what I got:
If you look at Forcen's screenshot above, you will see that there are two line items in the dialog box that say "Mozilla Firefox". Mine has 3. I deleted my main profile and ALL of them disappeared from that dialog box. When I try to correct the setting, only one of them says 0% protection, leaving 2 other items that are redundantly enforcing the setting. Same thing if I delete the entire prefs.js file. Which leads me to believe that this "Immunization" of sorts modifies 2 other files I am not aware of. If I can only figure out what those other 2 files are, I might get somewhere.
I figured it out!!!
Okay, so somehow the "Disable Third-Party Cookies" thingy affected 2 of my addons: FEBE and Xmarks. I deleted both of these extensions and their associated folders and BAM! It is fixed. Someone should put a sticky on this post. :)
Just to clarify: If you install either of these addons, they will appear as separate line items on the "Disable 3rd Party cookies" tool. If you then click those line items, there is no way to "undo" the "fix" to the addons, so you will have to re-install them to remove the settings.
I'm glad you were able to fix it,mind20. :bigthumb: :)
Yey, reinstalling Xmarks worked for me to! Thanks for finding the fix mind20.
Now the spybot team should be able to reproduce this issue and prevent it from happening to more unsuspecting users right?;)
Some sort of undo thing in that window would be great.
Thank you all for your time.
We've got plans to make the Settings window easier to navigate (no more tabs at the top, the more there are, the less intuitive and fast to navigate it is), when that happens, an Undo page sounds like a good idea :)
SweetAndy
2012-12-13, 19:38
Looking over this thread I appreciate all that you guys have done. However, I have a question. I don't have FEBE but I do have Xmarks; how do I safely delete it (and it's folders or whatever) and then reinstall and get everything back the way it was?
Looking over this thread I appreciate all that you guys have done. However, I have a question. I don't have FEBE but I do have Xmarks; how do I safely delete it (and it's folders or whatever) and then reinstall and get everything back the way it was?
Try just uninstall and reinstall through firefox, that worked for me with xmarks. I didn't even have to log in again. Even if you do, everything on xmarks is saved online with your account.
SweetAndy
2012-12-18, 08:44
Try just uninstall and reinstall through firefox, that worked for me with xmarks. I didn't even have to log in again. Even if you do, everything on xmarks is saved online with your account.
Tried it but didn't work for me. Even consulted with the xmarks people and they confirmed what to do. Still blocks 3rd party cookies even though it says it doesn't in the FF options. My Spybot shows two firefox entries one 100 percent and one zero percent.
Confusing.
SweetAndy
2012-12-21, 08:59
Finally, I think I got it fixed. I had to go into
Options>Privacy>Accept cookies from sites>Exceptions
and clear all the exceptions. Now it seems to work ok.
We will see. :)
touchnova
2013-02-03, 14:05
We've got plans to make the Settings window easier to navigate (no more tabs at the top, the more there are, the less intuitive and fast to navigate it is), when that happens, an Undo page sounds like a good idea :)
An undo page sounds good? How about just starting by reverting the system changes you've made previously upon uninstall? I've fought with this damn problem for hours and hours now, have uninstalled Spybot and it STILL CONTROLS MY FIREFOX COOKIES....NOT COOL! I've follow instructions in this thread, I followed the instructions in Spybot's "Help" file before uninstalling, nothing has worked. Now, after wasting enough of my time, I'm forced to log in to sites every damn time I go there. What a complete function fail on the part of Spybot. Fix this in your app and provide a REAL, ACCURATE FIX FOR THOSE IN OUR SITUATION!! Yes, that's a demand, and not likely to be received well...but I don't receive programs that fk my settings up with no recourse very well either!
touchnova
2013-02-03, 15:30
My patience has really, really run dry on this one. WTF is Spybot doing to my settings that overrides the manual settings even after the program is removed? I've removed Spybot, I've uninstalled Firefox, reinstalled Firefox with a new profile, manually changed the cookie settings in about:config, confirmed repeatedly that 'accept third party cookies' is selected in Options....yet for some godforsaken reason, the settings always revert....REGARDLESS. SPYBOT ISN'T EVEN INSTALLED!!!
As a web developer who has to visit the same list of sites up to 50 times a day, having to log in EVERY SINGLE TIME is really fking with my workflow and wasting my time. SPYBOT.....there's a reason Firefox offers the ability to manage passwords.....WHY ARE YOU SCREWING WITH THIS ARBITRARILY???
Provide a REAL fix, not your mediocre suggestion in the "Help" file that does absolutely nothing.
Gopher John
2013-02-03, 16:36
Permissions.sqlite may be corrupted. However, a new Firefox profile would have a clean Permissions.sqlite so there might be another security program causing the problem.
See
[Solved.] Cookie handling utterly boinked by v17.0 (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2623211)
Cookie exceptions disappear in Firefox 17 vs 16 (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2621009)
Do Cookie Exceptions Override Third-Party Cookie Blocking? (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2641745)
touchnova
2013-02-03, 17:01
Thank you Gopher John, I will try anything at this point!