Privacy Friendly Cookie Settings

Privacy friendly cookie settings is a browser extension designed to help users to configure their cookie settings. The extension is especially designed for users who are not familiar with the topic of browser cookies and their implications for their privacy and browsing experience, and want to learn more about it. 

The extension is based on the thesis of Benjamin Reinheimer and has later been implemented as a Chrome extension.

Functionality

The extension provides information about what the cookies are and how they are used, also addressing the difference between so-called third party cookies. Overall, following settings are available within the extension, both as general and as website-specific settings:

  • Allowing or blocking third-party cookies
  • Deleting already stored cookies
  • Setting the cookies to be deleted automatically each time the browser is closed.
  • Enabling storing only the cookies used for log in purposes.

For each configuration option, the extension describes its advantages and disadvantages for the end user.

Furthermore, additional options for supporting the users are provided. In particular, it provides an assistant mode for guiding the users through their settings via a series of questions.

For more fine-grained configuration, the users furthermore can manage the cookies for individual websites by using website-specific settings.

Download

You can download the add-on from the official Chrome Store. If you are interested in the source code of this add-on, just click here to get to the official GitHub website.

The extension was developed as part of the thesis of Oliver Käfer and maintained by Laura Imler.

Publications

Entwicklung eines Interfaces zur privacy-friendly Cookie-Einstellung
Reinheimer, B.; Braun, K.; Volkamer, M.
2016. MuC-Workshop „Usable Security and Privacy“, Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. 

A Concept and Evaluation of Usable and Fine-Grained Privacy-Friendly Cookie Settings Interface External Link.
Kulyk, O.; Mayer, P.; Käfer, O.; Volkamer, M.
2018. The 17th IEEE International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications (TrustCom 2018), New York, NY, August 1-3, 2018, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ

"This Website Uses Cookies": Users’ Perceptions and Reactions to the Cookie Disclaimer.
Kulyk, O.; Hilt, A.; Gerber, N.; Volkamer, M.
2018. 3rd European Workshop on Usable Security (EuroUSEC), London, England, April 23, 2018, Internet Societa, Reston 8VY)

Wahrnehmungen und Reaktionen der Endnutzer auf Cookie-Meldungen “Diese Webseite verwendet Cookies”.
Kulyk, O.; Gerber, N.; Volkamer, M.; Hilt, A.
2019. Datenschutz und Datensicherheit, 43 (2), 81–85. doi:10.1007/s11623-019-1068-8