10 Privacy Hacks for Managing Browser Cookies Everyone Should Know
Do you "accept" or "reject" that cookie request? Browser cookies don’t just remember your login details: They can track your browsing history across websites, follow you around with specific ads, or even hijack your active browser session to log into your accounts without a password. On the other hand, if you don’t click accept when you see a cookie banner, that can affect your browsing experience—many websites need cookies to function normally.
Luckily, cookie management isn’t just a binary choice any more. You can choose which cookies to accept on a website, auto-delete cookies after a set amount of time, or even switch between browser profiles to control which cookies stay active during a session.
Switch on Device Bound Session Credentials in Chrome
When an attacker steals your session cookies, they can bypass the requirement for passwords or multi-factor authentication and get into your logged-in accounts right away. Websites think it’s you accessing an account you already logged into, so they don’t ask for credentials again.
DBSC (aka Device Bound Session Credentials) is a Chrome feature that restricts your session cookies so that they apply to your current physical device only. A hardware boundary is established, preventing hackers from replaying your session cookies from a different device. DBSC is turned on by default in Chrome, but you need to be using version 146 or above and enable TPM on Windows for it to work.
Install the official Multi-Account Containers add-on for Firefox
Blocking all third-party cookies outright often prevents any embedded content from loading, but if you don’t do it, cookies from different websites can stitch your complete browsing activity together for ad targeting.
Total Cookie Protection is the default Firefox feature that creates a separate cookie jar for each domain, so third-party cookies stay enabled but can’t track you after you leave that website. This is great, except when you’re trying to stay logged into multiple accounts on the same domain, like several inboxes on Gmail. Firefox won’t create separate cookie jars for different accounts on the same domain, so third-party cookies can follow you from one account to another.
That’s why you should install Multi-Account Containers. This official Firefox extension lets you separate cookies not just by domain name, but by creating different container tabs that each represent a distinct browsing activity like Personal, Work, or Shopping. Each container gets its own cookie storage that does not interfere with the others. This can work together with Total Cookie Protection for even more privacy benefits.
Learn about the different privacy options on Safari
ITP, ATFP, and AFP are three overlapping cookie management systems that work together to protect your browsing activity from trackers and cookies on Safari. You should know which does what so you can enable the functions that work best for you.
Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) is the default anti-tracking engine built into Safari since 2017. It causes script-set cookies to expire after seven days and purges all site-specific data after 30 days of no activity.
Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection (ATFP) is an optional feature that adds another layer of security protocols on top of ITP for domain blocking and link tracker removal.
Advanced Fingerprinting Protection (AFP) is a newer Safari feature that prevents websites from identifying your device using high-entropy device APIs that pull data like screen size, hardware specs, audio data, canvas rendering, etc.
You can adjust your privacy settings on Safari by navigating to Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced on your iPhone or Mac.
Delete cookies automatically when tabs are closed
Most people aren’t used to clearing their cookie storage manually, even though that’s something you should absolutely do. Luckily there are browser extensions that can automatically clear all cookies from a website the moment you close your browser tab, unless you’ve specifically whitelisted that website.
Cookie AutoDelete on Firefox is the original extension that introduced this feature. But on Chrome, Opera, Edge, and other Chromium-based browsers, you’ll need a newer extension like Cookie Guardian. Safari does not have a similar extension but it sets cookies to delete automatically after seven days by default, so you don’t have to worry about it so much.
Delete cookies individually to customize your site experience
Sometimes you want to remove specific tracking cookies without wiping your whole cookie session with a website. Cookie-Editor, an open-source extension that’s available across all major browsers, lets you do exactly that. While it is primarily intended as a developer tool for troubleshooting web apps, you can also use it to manage your privacy while surfing the internet.
That said, Cookie-Editor does not support rule-based automation and cookies must be deleted manually on every visit, so treat this more as a last-resort fix for persistent tracking cookies rather than something you’d use all the time.
Save cookie profiles to avoid logging in and out every time
Did you know that you can save a snapshot of your browser’s full set of active cookies, delete them, then restore them at any point to the last snapshot using specific extensions? Instead of manually logging back into accounts every time you clear your cookie storage, you can create a cookie profile to instantly snap back to the logged-in state after you delete your browsing activity.
Cookie Editor on Chromium-based browsers (not to be confused with the open-source Cookie-Editor), lets you create cookie snapshots for each site and restore them with a single click. On Firefox, you can get the same functionality out of Cookie Quick Manager. Safari does not have any extensions that support cookie profiles just yet, but you can export and import cookies in JSON, which gets you close enough.
Create temporary cookie permissions for each site
Instead of allowing third-party cookies on every site, you can create temporary exceptions on a per-site basis for websites that need to have cookies enabled.
You can do this in Chrome by clicking on the eye-shaped icon next to the address bar, then switching “Third-party cookies blocked” to “Third-party cookies allowed.” This grants that website an exception that lasts for 90 days by default, unless you choose to disable it manually.
On Firefox, you can click the shield icon on the address bar and toggle off Enhanced Tracking Protection. Your page will now reload with trackers and cookies enabled. It won’t use tracking protection again until you manually enable it. If you visit a website occasionally and need complete functionality when you do, but don’t trust the site to have blanket cookie exceptions the year round, this could be a nice middle ground.
Regularly revoke active sessions on your device
Passkeys protect your login credentials, but not the logged-in accounts on your web browser. If you’ve already signed into an app or website from your browser, it generates session cookies that stay active until the moment you close your browser. If an attacker gains access to those session cookies through malware or phishing, they can freely access your accounts as long as your current browser session remains active.
You can revoke your session cookies once you’re done with an app or website by simply logging out of the account from that device. But if you want to log out of all sessions from other devices too, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and all other major online platforms let you revoke active sessions tied to your account either per device or all at once.
This even works on third-party apps or websites that use the single sign-on feature to let you sign in with your Google or Microsoft account without setting a username and password.
Implement network-level blocking with DNS filters
Not all browsers support cookie management extensions on every device. If you’d like to block tracker cookies before they can even reach your browser, you can use network-level tools that block cookie requests directly from your router. Pi-hole is a self-hosted application that runs on a remote server or virtual machine. Once installed, you can configure any router to route all internet traffic through your Pi-hole server by changing some DNS settings.
This will block any known advertisement or tracking domains from sending cookie requests to your connected devices, effectively stopping tracking cookies from even being generated. If self-hosting Pi-hole feels intimidating, you can also try the cloud-based alternative NextDNS.
Back up your cookies before performing cleanup operations
Once you click “Clear browsing data,” your browser permanently deletes all your cookies from the device storage and there’s no way to retrieve them. If you’d rather avoid re-authenticating logins on certain websites every time, you can back up your cookie storage before performing a cleanup by exporting it as a CSV file or JSON. You can use the Cookie-Editor extension mentioned earlier to export your cookie storage on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and other popular web browsers. Other extensions like EditThisCookie and Cookies.txt offer the same feature.
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