cookies

[dave_a]

Why is it that paypal wants to put a cookie on my machine when I visit this site? If I were to click on the paypal link I could see that, but just visitting any page on this site results in paypal trying to put a cookie on my machine.

Why?

[viscousmemories]

Um... erm...

I dunno. Lemme see if I can figure it out.

[viscousmemories]

Actually, what indication do you have that this is happening? I don't see anything in the PayPal button code that would generate a cookie, and there shouldn't be anything PayPal on this site besides that button... :?

[Scotty]

It might be spyware software. I think the thread on HH has what you will need.

That shit-fuck software really pisses me off.

-Scott

[Goliath]

[cookie monster]

COOKIE!!!!

[/cookie monster]

:D

[dave_a]

Actually, what indication do you have that this is happening? I don't see anything in the PayPal button code that would generate a cookie, and there shouldn't be anything PayPal on this site besides that button... :?

I have no known spyware on my machine, I just got done running adaware, spybot and spy sweeper.

The reason I think paypal is trying to put a cookie on my machine is that in IE on the bottom of the screen I have a red circle with a white slash through it which means my privacy settings have been enforced.

When clicking on that it says a cookie has been blocked with the address of www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/x-click-but04.gif

The wierd thing is that this is the address to the paypal image that appears on this site (which I see). I selected 'always allow' cookies from paypal since it doesn't appear to actually be a cookie, but somehow it is. I went through all my cookies and deleted any from paypal and after visiting this site I get a cookie with the following in it:

Apache
68.115.22.28.272411090553459547
www.paypal.com/
1024
2681969536
31853809
2023765680
29651045
*

Those fucks.

[viscousmemories]

Huh. Okay thanks, I'll keep looking into it.

[dave_a]

Just so you don't think I am crazy:

Here is a screen capture with all cookies deleted. http://webpages.charter.net/davea/1.1.jpg

And after firing up the browser and visitting FF.

http://webpages.charter.net/davea/1.2.jpg

You may have to switch to full screen view to see the text clearly.

[viscousmemories]

Just so you don't think I am crazy:
Nope, didn't work. I still think you're crazy. :didi:

Seriously though, this is pissing me off. It's definitely gotta be the button creating the cookie, but I've read every piece of literature on the paypal website and they say nothing about it. I hate things that put stuff on my computer that I didn't ask for or know about, and I hate that we're doing that to our visitors. I'll get to the bottom of it.

[dave_a]

For the record, paypal isn't going to help this site. I attempted to donate something less than 1 million dollars and paypal rejected it for an invalid reason. It said I wasn't including my secret number (the 3 digit number on the back of the credit card).

It said to fill it out. Problem is there was no field for me to fill that number in.

So, I would have donated, but can't.

Paypal sucks ass.

editted to add: I went back to paypal and entered my normal address and password rather than trying the "I don't already have an account" thing. It still refused to send you payment because I have my browser settings rejecting their cookies. My username, password and dollar amount were filled in and all information paypal legitimately needs (credit card number addres etc.) are on record. It refused to pay you fine folks simply because I said "fuck you" to their cookies.

Can you guys accept normal credit card payments without the hassle of paypal snooping BS?

[Scotty]

I get no paypal cookie when just visiting this site.

What browser are you using? Is it I.E.? If so, I strongly suggest never using that browser again. I am really not kidding. Especially if you are going to spend money on-line.

I have Safari blocking cookies not of the originating site, and the cookies I have from this forum are all login related and game related.

Did you try CWShredder on your system too? It might find something the others didn't.

-Scott

[dave_a]

I get no paypal cookie when just visiting this site.

What browser are you using? Is it I.E.? If so, I strongly suggest never using that browser again. I am really not kidding. Especially if you are going to spend money on-line.

I have Safari blocking cookies not of the originating site, and the cookies I have from this forum are all login related and game related.

Did you try CWShredder on your system too? It might find something the others didn't.

-Scott

I don't think my using IE has any bearing on whether paypal tries putting a cookie on my machine unless paypal detects the browser and only attempts a cookie write if it's IE. I concede it's possible, it just doesn't seem probable.

Anyway, IE does block the cookie because I tell it to via the IE security settings and I run a few spyware progs too so I am not all that concerned about it, I just found it curious that paypal tried to place cookies on my machine simply because this site uses one of their buttons. That seems really illegitimate to me.

I will look into some other browsers, but to tell you the truth I rather like IE. In the past (granted it has been awhile) I just plain found other browsers to not work the way I wanted them to.

[dave_a]

OK, so I downloaded FireFox and sure enough paypal doesn't place or attempt to place a cookie on my machine whereas with IE it does.

Makes no sense to me, all I can say is ADMINS FIX IT!!! :D

[viscousmemories]

I think it's a bug somewhere. I've exchanged a couple e-mails with PayPal's tech support and they claim that the button doesn't generate a cookie unless someone clicks on it, which is untrue based on your claim and my own testing (at least with IE). So I'm still working on trying to figure out what's going on. Sorry.

[dave_a]

Ok so a bit off topic, but a question for you FireFox users out there. I am about ready to delete this browser from my system because it is annoying as hell.

So far I like the browser well enough, it seems very similar to IE in terms of it's interface, but it has this annoying habit that in my 30 minutes of using it I don't see a way to turn off.

When I post a message to this forum or any other and then click on the back button it brings up this hyper annoying dialogue box informing me of the potential consequences of hitting the back button such as resubmitting my information.

I don't want to see that box ever again. I don't want any net nanny warnings about hitting the back button. I know what I am doing
:yup:


Can I somehow turn off this box? It wouldn't be so bad if I could continue clicking the back button and it just went away, but once it appears it no longer allows using the back button until I click OK and then it resubmits my info and reloads the page I am on before I can backclick again.

Annoying as hell I tell you.

This is why I traditionally don't like the browser alternatives to IE.

[viscousmemories]

Can you guys accept normal credit card payments without the hassle of paypal snooping BS?
Y'know, I totally missed you slippin' this in to your post after the fact. There are myriad ways you can send us money. PM liv and she'll hook you up. :)

Also, this problem has finally been resolved. I think I heard the answer a long time ago but it didn't click. I posted at vB.org about it again recently and someone suggested the fix again. So it's fixed!

The secret was copying the button image to our own server so a call doesn't have to go out to PayPal to load the page. :doh:

[dave_a]

Can you guys accept normal credit card payments without the hassle of paypal snooping BS?
Y'know, I totally missed you slippin' this in to your post after the fact. There are myriad ways you can send us money. PM liv and she'll hook you up. :)

Also, this problem has finally been resolved. I think I heard the answer a long time ago but it didn't click. I posted at vB.org about it again recently and someone suggested the fix again. So it's fixed!

The secret was copying the button image to our own server so a call doesn't have to go out to PayPal to load the page. :doh:


cool thanks, although once I started using Firefox I haven't looked back to IE. It's amazing at how the privacy settings still let so much through, but with Firefox it's a non issue.

[viscousmemories]

cool thanks, although once I started using Firefox I haven't looked back to IE. It's amazing at how the privacy settings still let so much through, but with Firefox it's a non issue.
Cool. The only reason I haven't switched yet is 'cause the vBulletin admin control panel looks kinda wack in Firefox. It's not Firefox's fault - the next version of vBulletin will fix it - but it still makes me wary.

[JoeP]

Hmm. On topic :cookiem:
here
Am I the only one who's noticed that almost every thread in this forum ends up becoming a discussion of food in some way or another?