Flash cookies: the bane of Internet users' experience ever since it became public that companies were using them to track users—completely separate from normal browser cookies. It's not easy for regular users to go digging around to delete Flash cookie data, but that may change soon thanks to Adobe.

The company has been working with developers from Microsoft and Google to implement a new browser API that will make it easier for browser users to get rid of the local shared objects (LSOs, also known as Flash cookies) used by the Flash Player. In fact, the new API (NPAPI ClearSiteData, for the curious) has already been approved for implementation, and is expected to appear in Firefox sometime in the near future.

Adobe wrote about its work on the API in a blog post about privacy, noting that users can always control their LSO settings within the Flash Player Settings Manager (accessible by right-clicking Flash content and then going to Global Settings). The company admitted that the tool could be easier to use, though, and said that a redesign is coming soon along with a way for users to access those settings via their normal control panels under Windows, Mac, and Linux.

This is in addition to the private browsing features that already exist in Safari, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox, which block the Flash Player from storing any kind of data during a browsing session. (Adobe didn't say whether Apple or Microsoft were also working on changes to work with the new API like Mozilla seems to be, but the company is undoubtedly in talks to try to get them on board.)

Flash cookies got a bad rap last year when numerous companies—including MTV, Hulu, ABC, MySpace, Disney, UStream, and others—were sued for recreating deleted browser cookies with the help of Flash LSOs. A user's unique tracking ID would be stored in the Flash LSO as well as other places so that when a user deleted a normal cookie, the offending websites would just grab that ID from other locations on the user's computer in order to recreate it without losing all the tracking data.

The problem has gone beyond Flash cookies by now—one developer recently released a JavaScript API that stores tracking data in (now) 13 different places, including Flash LSOs, in order to raise awareness about the ways in which companies can track users. Still, Adobe's move will make it easier for users to control one of the more popular ways to store data on their machines, and all without having to go into full-on private browsing mode.