Adobe Simplifying Process to Manage, Delete 'Flash Cookies'

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Adobe this week provided an update on efforts to help users better manage their privacy when using its Flash Player. Among the upcoming options will be the ability to clear local storage - sometimes known as "Flash cookies" - and the introduction of a less complicated settings manager.
As many Web users know, "cookies" are little bits of data collected about your Internet activity. They can be useful - like remembering passwords and settings on sites that you surf to frequently - but there are also concerns about targeted advertising and how much data is really gathered about the average Web user.
Web cookies can be deleted, but management of cookies inside products like Flash are a bit more complex. Flash cookies, or local shared objects (LSO), made headlines recently when the Federal Trade Commission released a report that called on browser makers to include a "do not track" option in their products. The FTC also mentioned Adobe because it said the cookies gathered by Flash are collected regardless of the browser's settings.
On Wednesday, Adobe said it has been working on these issues, which will be addressed in future releases of Flash and popular browsers.
"Since local storage allows sites and apps to remember information, there are concerns about the use of local storage to store tracking information – or of greater concern, to restore tracking information to a browser cookie that a user has intentionally deleted," Emmy Huang, group product manager for Flash Player, wrote in a blog post. "This use of local data storage has raised questions about privacy. So we're continually working to make sure that users have better control over the local data stored by applications running in Flash Player."
Adobe already added an in-private browsing option to Flash Player 10.1, which allows users to surf and play video content without having their activity tracked. But going forward, users will also be able to delete LSOs from their browser settings, whether they are using normal browsing or private.
"Representatives from several key companies, including Adobe, Mozilla, and Google have been working together to define a new browser API (NPAPI ClearSiteData) for clearing local data, which was approved for implementation on January 5, 2011," Huang wrote. "Any browser that implements the API will be able to clear local storage for any plugin that also implements the API."
Huang said the feature will be available via the Google Chrome developer channel in the coming weeks, and other vendors are expected to start supporting it in the near future, she wrote.
Second, Adobe pledged to simplify its settings manager. Users can already control their storage settings online, but "we know the Flash Player Settings Manager could be easier to use," Huang wrote.
"We're working on a redesign coming in a future release of Flash Player, which will bring together feedback from our users and external privacy advocates," she wrote.
Users will also be able to access the Flash Player Settings Manager directly from the computer's Control Panels or System Preferences on Windows, Mac, and Linux, Huang said. She expected the enhancements to be available in the first half of the year.
"These local storage improvements will give you better control over the information stored on your computer and are part of our ongoing efforts to help you manage your privacy," Huang concluded.
 
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