I arranged for my investment company to recognize my computer (Windows 7,
SP1) only. Since implementing this, I’ve been blocked from accessing my
investment company online. I’ve talked with their tech people and was told that
my anti-virus program is deleting cookies needed for my investment company to
recognize my computer. I have Microsoft Security Essentials. Is this the
problem or is it something else?
In this excerpt from
Answercast #94 I look at the way banks and investment companies allow you
to “remember” a safe computer easily to sign in with.
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One should go through all the clean-up tools (ie. CCleaner), the anti-malware apps and browser(s) settings and check to see if the ‘delete cookies’ tick-box checked. That might be the problem.
Hi Leo,
Is there any way, one can make the required cookies ‘not erasable’, similar to some system/program files are protected?
@Mr Shanker
There are browser plug-ins such as Cookie Manager+ for Firefox and possibly for other browsers which allow you to set exceptions for cookies you want to keep.
I am totally confused – this article appears to be totally in favour of retaining ‘tracking cookies’ . I have only used a computer for 6 years and, until now, have always been told to remove cookies by PC magazines and anti-spyware companies mainly for security and privacy reasons. Now we have this Investment Company Member with his experience changing everything. What is going on and what have I misunderstood all this time please?
In Firefox, and so probably other browsers, you can set the browser to delete cookies when the browser closes. You can also set “exceptions” which you don’t want deleted (banking or whatever).
I don’t care if ad-trackers know that I’ve visited a few pages where they have ads. Also, as cookies are not “active” in any way, they aren’t a danger to my PC or network. However, some people, even people who aren’t paranoid, prefer to delete cookies.
To find the settings in Firefox: Open ‘options’, click ‘privacy’ tab, choose in drop menu ‘use custom settings for history’, click on ‘exceptions’. Remember that ‘exceptions’ also includes cookies you want to block, so watch carefully every step. It’s actually much simpler than the explanation seems.
Other major browsers should be similar.
If it all goes wonky, and your browser won’t work, simply uninstall, including saved settings, and reinstall from scratch.
Cookies can accumulate over time. I use Google Chrome browser which allows deleting selected cookies. From the Tool menu, select “Settings”, select “Advanced Settings”, select “Content Settings”, select “All Cookies and Site Data”, and delete whatever cookies you do not want. Some sites where you have to enter account name to enter the site I keep, so I don’t have to enter every time. The rest I get rid of.
If I erase cookies (rare) I use CCleaner.
What I did is I ran CCleaner and erased ALL cookies. I then went and logged into every bank, government, email, etc account that I knew used a cookie to recognize me or remember me. I didn’t go anywhere else on the internet.
I then ran CCleaner again, but this time before actually processing anything, I went into the cookies section and told it not to delete any of these cookies (which had just been stored). It was the easiest way to identify all the cookies that I wanted to keep.
Now whenever I do clean my cookies, the ones I really care about don’t get deleted.