First time on here….basically I need help deciphering cookies. Is there a way to tell if they are 3rd party cookies or not? It is of a personal nature, but I would not mind sharing if someone thought they could help out. I need to know if the actual site was visited or the cookie was placed via another site. I have gone as far as I can go on my own and am in dire need of this information.
Thank you in advance for your help and knowledge.
Analysis of the cookie(s) is only part of determining if a site was visited. You will also want to analyze the history, cache, etc. Just because a cookie is on a system does not necessarily mean a user has visited a site.
For example if the user received SPAM the cookie could have been set when the message was opened.
Foundstone provides a free tool
I checked the history but it has been erased. He is using a search engine that apparently leaves no tracks….I ended up calling the web site in question and they said that they only put cookies on if the site has been contacted directly. So I guess that's my answer. I was curious about the other sites as well. I'm a bit bewildered by what exactly the software will do that "deciphers" cookies, history, etc. Will it reveal a date/time?
Erased is a relative term. Many people mistakenly use erased when really the data was just deleted. If it was just deleted it is often still recoverable. If the history is recoverable, the cache can often be found and rebuilt. From that you would have a much better understanding of the actual activity on the computer.
There really is no standard for what a cookie stores. It may have dates, times user information, etc. It depends on the server/site as to what is stored.
Are you just checking out a family computer? Or what are you hoping to accomplish? If it is anything more than idle curiosity, since you are in TX, you need to hire a PI before you proceed much further.