disconnectme/disconnect — Issue #15: Multiple cookies (all Google ) left behind when Disconnect extension is enable
Author: garyjob
Created: 2011-12-21 01:37:16+00:00
State: open

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Clear all cookies, Cookie settings: Do not accept any cookies, whitelist/exception [google.com, www.google.com]

2. Sign into google reader. View/Show cookies on machine. You see a long list of every possible cookie for all of google applications including adwords.
3. Logout of google reader and all the cookies are still on the machine as reported by browser.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 without Chrome Disconnect and only see two cookies [google.com, www.google.com]

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
I would not expect to see every possible google cookie dropped on my machine. Expect to see only cookies on my exception list.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
9.0.597.19 beta and latest dev release channel. This was done on Mac OS 10.6

Please provide any additional information below.

Comment 1 by project member byoogle, Jan 16, 2011
Thank you, great bug report. I attempted a workaround (http://code.google.com/p/byoogle/source/detail?r=21), but there still seem to be cases in which cookies remain after logout.
Status: Started
Owner: byoogle
Labels: Disconnect
Comment 2 by nspanther, Jan 17, 2011
Very much appreciate the attempt to fix the issue. Can you explain the reason for all Disconnect cookies being created up front? Is this really necessary? Originally, I thought it was the website dropping the cookies until I looked closer. I believe this is a notable issue because the average user will think that Disconnect has *enabled* (Google, .etc) to track his/her browsing just by looking the cookies (adwords, .etc) created in the browser. There is no real explanation of the technique so the use of cookies leave a user to "trust" that the cookie he/she sees are not the websites/Google.
Comment 3 by project member byoogle, Jan 17, 2011
Google (and Yahoo) implement single sign-on -- when you log into one service, you get a set of generic cookies that are sent to many other services. The problem is some of those many services include search features, allowing your search history to be tracked. Disconnect instead generates many specific cookies that only let you access and transmit your personal data to non-search services.

Link to original Google code issue:
http://code.google.com/p/byoogle/issues/detail?id=42