Understanding cookie filters

Cookie filters are the primary mechanism by which cookies are blocked by Ad Annihilator. All decisions that Ad Annihilator makes on whether to send or receive a cookie are controlled by cookie filters. Both simple and advanced techniques for blocking of cookies (see How to block cookies?) affect cookie filters, but the simple technique manipulates cookie filters implicitly in an easy-to-use manner while the other implies direct manipulation of filters by the user. This section is intended for advanced users who want to understand how cookie filters work in Ad Annihilator. In most cases, understanding of cookie filters is not necessary and users may use simple technique for cookie blocking.

Cookie filters are just a list of sites to which you want to apply special cookie policy. For example, consider the following filters setup in Cookie filters tab:

These filters mean that we want special cookie handling for these sites. In other words, we want to block cookies from those sites in the way that differs from default cookie settings.

Each cookie filter including those shown above has following properties:

Host contains site address mask. See Understanding masks for information on masks and their syntax. Only host part of the site address should be entered here. See Understanding Internet addresses for more information on site address parts.

"Apply to subdomains" option prescribing to apply the entered cookie host address mask not only to the site but only to its subdomains.

Each checkbox corresponds to cookie type you want to enable. See Privacy on the web for information on various cookie types mentioned there and What could I do to protect my privacy? for recommendations on cookie blocking.

What happens to cookies from other sites?

For cookies from other sites not listed in cookie filters list default cookie settings are applied. See Default cookies settings window for more information.