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Comment by grepular | Hacker News Reader

So this addon just blocks some third party cookies? I already have third party cookies disabled in my Firefox settings. Does that make this plugin useless to me?

Wasn't there already plans to "block" third party cookies from being delivered as standard anyway, when the top level site domain changes?

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I have third party cookies blocked as well in Firefox settings - I see this error when I click on the badger icon in the toolbar: "Your cookie preferences are changed from the defaults. This may reduce the effectiveness of Privacy Badger."

Probably if all third-party cookies are blocked, then Badger doesn't have anything to work with.

Yes, the alpha version (what we just launched) only works on third-party cookies, so the heuristic blocking algorithm doesn't do anything if you block 3rd party cookies entirely. We plan to add detection of other tracking methods (Flash cookies, local storage, fingerprinting, etc.) as time goes on. More info in the Firefox version's README: https://github.com/EFForg/privacybadgerfirefox/blob/eb1055c4...

Thanks for clarifying. This is a much needed initiative and your work is greatly appreciated. Happy to see my donations hard at work :)

I have all cookies blocked except for the domains that I whitelist (where I need to login). This is built into all browsers (AFAIK). Why not just use that feature? What am I missing here?

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