Everything that you say makes sense to me. However, it doesn't seem like
that was the way that it used to work. It's an annoyance when I site
notifies you that you have to have cookies enabled to use their site. They
quite often tell you how to enable cookies -- though they will rarely tell
you how to do it just for their domain. The big problem is when the site
just doesn't work right and then doesn't tell you why. This makes my wife's
blood pressure shoot through the roof.

I'll experiment with disabling 3rd party cookies and see what happens.

Thank you.

"VanguardLH" wrote:

> Nimmer wrote:
>
> > I am not sure if this can be controlled by the browser or is totally up to
> > the web sites.
> >
> > I have my browser set to accept 1st party cookies, prompt for 3rd party
> > cookies, and always allow session cookies. When I am just browsing a site
> > (not ready to buy) I block cookies every time I am prompted. Most sites have
> > no problem with me doing this each and every time the privacy alert shows up.
> > When I get tired of doing this multiple times I will check the "Apply my
> > decision to all cookies from this website" and then block the cookie. Some
> > sites have no problem with this. Other sites will not longer function
> > correctly. I am guessing that this is because the check box means that it
> > will also block 1st party and session cookies.
> >
> > My suggestion is to make this so that checking the box will act like I am
> > continually clicking the block button instead of some other behavior. (If my
> > guess is right, then checking the box should only apply to 3rd party cookies
> > due to the preferences that I have allready set.)
> >
> > ----------------
> > This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
> > suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
> > Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
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> >
> > http://www.microsoft.com/communities...orer. general
>
> The fear of 3rd party cookies is that they could be use to track your
> web navigation. The web browser ensures that only the domain recorded
> inside the cookie is the domain that can access the cookie. So the
> domain you are at cannot use the 3rd party cookie that it creates. But
> if you navigate elsewhere then that cookie may become a 1st party cookie
> (i.e., the domain to which you navigate is the domain recorded inside
> the cookie). They can they read the cookie to see what info was
> recorded in it by the prior domain. 3rd party cookies are of no concern
> until you navigate away from a domain. Cookies are old as regards their
> use for tracking your web navigation. After all, any site to which you
> connect can add your info to a database that is shared amongst the
> affiliates of that web site. Nothing on your host needs to be recorded,
> like in a cookie .txt file, for them to track you on the web.
>
> Since you are blocking all 3rd party cookies (by getting prompted and
> then blocking them), why not just block them all the time? If you hit a
> site that you often visit then add their domain as Allowed in the cookie
> list. If a site doesn't want to cooperate with their content providers
> regarding a common database of tracking info (and why sites still use
> cookies to track you) then you probably never want any 3rd party
> cookies. There are some sites that are comprised of several domains
> hence their cookies may appear to be 3rd party cookies. If a "good"
> site needs to use their 3rd party cookies, like when bouncing you around
> to their different domains as you navigate their services, then just add
> their domains to the Allow list.
>
> You must have a lot more patience than I. Continually and often getting
> prompted at a site to allow a 3rd party cookie would, to me, be a waste
> of my time. I allow 1st party cookies, BLOCK all 3rd party cookies, and
> allow per-session cookies. I used to have only a couple domains listed
> in the Allow cookie list for those sites that bounced me around to their
> different domains to use their services (like for webmail services).
> After awhile, they fixed that problem and I no longer have any entries
> in my Allow list.
>
> Allowing 1st party cookies means you get stuck with a lot of cookies
> from one-visited or rarely-visited sites. While their cookies may be
> needed to enable full functionality of their web site, that doesn't mean
> that I want their cookies lingering around after the web session ends.
> I'm not there anymore and don't need their cookies lingering on my host.
> When I visit there next time, they'll recreate their cookie. So I use
> whitelisting to eliminate most 1st party cookies after the web browser
> exits. PopUpCop (now free) not only provides better popup control than
> what is included in IE and for many other popup blockers but it includes
> a cookie whitelist feature. If a domain isn't in the whitelist, its
> cookies get deleted when the web browser exits. This, in effect, forces
> all non-whitelisted cookies to be per-session cookies. I only whitelist
> those cookies at those domains that I frequent and whose cookies I want
> to keep around, usually for forums to facilitate login (but not for my
> banks where I always want to enter the login credentials). I am not
> currently using PopUpCop with IE8 so I haven't tested its compatibility
> with IE8. If I were to use it with IE8, I would configure IE8's
> browsing history to delete everything except cookies (plus I would
> disable the Preserve option which keeps TIF data for sites in your
> Favorites list). That's because I would use PopUpCop's whitelisting
> feature to purge the non-whitelisted cookies instead of using IE8's
> delete function. So I would allow per-session cookies in IE8, block all
> 3rd party cookies, and allow all 1st party cookies but have PopUpCop
> purge the non-whitelisted 1st party cookies.
>