You’ve definitely got them on your computer, and no, your browser doesn’t have an option to delete them.
I’m talking about Flash Cookies.
Flash cookies are a little known feature in Macromedia Flash Player, that allow sites to track your whereabouts online, and build a list of things you’re interested in. It’s how marketers keep track of just what age group you may be in, and what sex you may be.
And it’s very well hidden from end users.
In fact a new lawsuit says Overture uses these hidden “zombie cookies” to recreate your computer’s computers once you’ve deleted them. This means, even after you’ve deleted your cookies, traces of your browsing patterns still remain.
How do you fix it?
Either disable Flash, or learn to delete your Flash cookies too. It is a bit of a hassle to do either, so remember, you can always just use a DemocraKey. All your Flash data is deleted upon every run.
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Actually, there’s a plugin for Firefox to delete them – it’s called BetterPrivacy and it deletes all LSO (flash) cookies when you close the browser (configurable). This is what I use.
If you’re using windows there’s a program called ccleaner that deletes Flash cookies along with cleaning up a lot of other stuff on your computer. It’s fairly easy to find and download.