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Can a Website Over-ride Cookie Settings?

FitAintBrkDntFxIt
FitAintBrkDntFxIt
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Quite often in today's online world, now that Firefox is not the only browser that enables a user to block cookies the way that user so wishes, such messages as, "[W]e use cookies for analytics, performance, security, advertising and social media. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website" will appear in a banner or box - of course the reasons for "demanding" that a person allow a site to set cookies seem to be ever increasing, and this message is just one of the many I've seen. There will usually be a couple of options, one of which is "I agree." I usually ignore the message, or if there is an "X" in the banner or box, I will clik on it - but I never clik "I agree." So I have two questions:

1. If a person cliks the "I agree" button, does that create a situation where the site is able to over-ride one's privacy settings for cookies, or must the user do that manually? ...

2. If a person simply ignores the message, and continues perusing the website, does the statement alone (the "warning") indicate that somehow, cookies WILL be set if you continue regardless whether you clik something like "I agree" or simply close the banner or box?

Quite often in today's online world, now that Firefox is not the only browser that enables a user to block cookies the way that user so wishes, such messages as, "[W]e use cookies for analytics, performance, security, advertising and social media. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website" will appear in a banner or box - of course the reasons for "demanding" that a person allow a site to set cookies seem to be ever increasing, and this message is just one of the many I've seen. There will usually be a couple of options, one of which is "I agree." I usually ignore the message, or if there is an "X" in the banner or box, I will clik on it - but I never clik "I agree." So I have two questions: 1. If a person cliks the "I agree" button, does that create a situation where the site is able to over-ride one's privacy settings for cookies, or must the user do that manually? ... 2. If a person simply ignores the message, and continues perusing the website, does the statement alone (the "warning") indicate that somehow, cookies WILL be set if you continue regardless whether you clik something like "I agree" or simply close the banner or box?

All Replies (1)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Here's how cookies work by default in regular windows: a site sends a bunch of cookies along with the file (whether it's the main page or image) and Firefox saves them for the time period requested by the site (same session only, a year, forever...). Then with every subsequent request to the site, Firefox sends back that set of cookies so the site can use that information to personalize the pages sent to you.

1. If you set Firefox not to accept any cookies, or have blocked cookies for that specific principal (protocol+host), Firefox won't set or return the cookies sent by that principal. Sites cannot tell Firefox "Oh, it's okay, I have permission" and have that make any difference.

2. Do sites need your permission to send you cookies? The answer may depend on the law where you live or where the server is. But even if the server sends cookies, Firefox may still ignore them, if that is how you set it. See #1.