I am happy to announce the release of version 2.0 of the Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-out (TACO) Firefox add-on.
This version has been completely rewritten from scratch, primarily by Daniel Witte @ Mozilla Corp. It also includes opt-out cookies for 6 additional advertising companies: Snoobi, comScore VoiceFive, Hurra, Criteo, Coremetrics and EyeWonder.
A total rewrite
The original TACO was essentially a fork of Google's Advertising Cookie Opt Out Plugin. Google's original tool included one cookie -- I simply modified it to include an additional 100 or so opt out cookies.
The problem is that Google's original code wasn't all that good -- it would reload all of the opt-out cookies each time a new window/tab was opened, and then force them to be reloaded again every 10 minutes, even if none of the opt-out cookies had changed.
Perhaps this isn't such a big deal for a tool that is designed to install a single opt-out cookie. However, it clearly didn't scale well.
Unfortunately, my Javascript skills are pretty horrible, and so I really wasn't up to the task of rewriting TACO by myself. Luckily, Daniel Witte, Mozilla's resident cookie guru offered to lend a hand, and eventually rewrote the entire add-on from scratch.
This new version is considerably faster, and no longer re-installs 100+ cookies into the browser each time a new tab/window is opened nor does it reinstall them again every 10 minutes after that.
Blocking third party cookies
One of the biggest complaint from TACO power-users was that the tool would not function when the user had configured the browser to block all 3rd party cookies (a suggested practice, and one which both Safari and Chrome do by default). I am happy to announce that TACO now plays nicely with blocked 3rd party cookies, and so the paranoid amongst you should feel free to go ahead and block them without having to worry about it breaking TACO.
A note about EyeWonder
Finally, blog-readers may remember that I recently pointed to EyeWonder's
After 9 days, it looks like the company finally
Chris, here's your chance to weigh in on White House cookie policy: http://blog.ostp.gov/2009/07/24/cookiepolicy/
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your advice about browser addons, which I find particularly helpful and useful. It was thanks to one of your articles quite a long time ago that I discovered CustomizeGoogle. If there are addons that you use for your own browsing privacy, I sure as hell want to use them too. Thanks again.
Why is it when I load TACO in Firefox 3.5.5, and go to TOOLS, OPTIONS, SHOW COOKIES, There are many cookies listed as an exception? When I delete all the cookies, they are immediately re-loaded.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to get rid of them is to uninstall TACO, run cleaners and they are gone.
"Why is it when I load TACO in Firefox 3.5.5, and go to TOOLS, OPTIONS, SHOW COOKIES, There are many cookies listed as an exception? When I delete all the cookies, they are immediately re-loaded."
ReplyDeleteBecause the cookies are meant to be permanent and need to be present to do their job. They are what tells the participating trackers to opt-out.
The URL you are pointing is redirecting to Abine's TACO.
ReplyDeletePlease check if that's your add-on. Some comments report it's a spyware.