Keeping select cookies

Issues with cookies:

• A lot of websites set cookies to do things that you may not like.
• A lot of websites set cookies to provide a convenience, like keeping you logged in across sessions.
• Some websites require cookies in order to work.

For the reasons above, I’ve decided that it would be best to clear cookies when firefox exits, and find some way to exempt some cookies from being cleared with the rest. To do that in Firefox, I found the setup a little confusing. There is no clear setting to exempt sites from clearing of cookies. As it turns out, the trick is to set the site to allow cookies. Sites in that exceptions list are also deferred when you have Firefox set to clear cookies on exit.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to the Options window.
   
2. In the Privacy panel, set “Firefox will” to Use custom settings for history.
   
3. Set Keep until to I close Firefox, then click OK.
   
4. For each website you exempted from being cleared on exit, visit it. When viewing the site, click on the site info icon to the left of the site address, and click More Information.
   
5. In the Permissions panel, uncheck Use Default under Set Cookies, and set it to Allow.
   

Cookies from those sites set to allow cookies will not be cleared on exit. No add-on required.