Ask HN: Why does Firefox treat 3rd party cookies from Google differently?

by d-z-m on 9/16/2024, 3:25:35 AM with 3 comments
I run Firefox with "strict" selected in the "enhanced tracking protection" section of the Firefox settings. To my knowledge, this section is meant to prevent known tracking domains from setting cross-site tracking cookies(among other things). This catches well known 3rd party tracking cookies mostly every time when visiting various websites(e.g. websites with Stripe payment integration, adtech cookies, etc).

However, whenever I do a Google search and click on the link I want, 3rd party cookies from Google are default-allowed through my Firefox enhanced tracking protection, despite being the de-facto tracking cookie on the internet. I was wondering if anyone knew the reason for this?

  • by solardev on 9/16/2024, 2:10:00 PM

    If you're doing a Google search, wouldn't a Google cookie be first party...?

    Do you have a specific example you could share?

  • by shortrounddev2 on 9/17/2024, 12:24:05 PM

    A third party cookie is a cookie that has been set across different domains. I.e: you are on foo.com, and a javascript request to bar.com sets a cookie on the bar.com domain.

    A first party cookie is set on the same domain. I.e: you are on foo.com, and the page responds with a cookie for foo.com

  • by readyplayernull on 9/17/2024, 1:28:56 AM

    Google paid Firefox plenty of money.