How to Manage and Customise Site Permissions and Third-Party Cookie Settings in Microsoft Edge

Modern websites frequently request access to local hardware and browser capabilities, including webcams, microphones, geographical location, push notifications, and local storage cookies. While these features enable interactive web apps and persistent logins, unchecked permissions can compromise your digital privacy and battery life. Microsoft Edge provides a centralized permission management dashboard that gives users granular control over what specific domains can access and how third-party trackers are handled. This guide demonstrates how to configure, review, and customise site permissions and cookie policies in Microsoft Edge.

Understanding Site Permissions in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge categorises web permissions into distinct hardware, sensory, and behavioural triggers:

• Hardware & Media: Camera, microphone, MIDI devices, USB peripherals, and serial ports.
• Location & Identity: Precise physical location sensors, motion sensors, and virtual reality / augmented reality headsets.
• User Attention: Desktop notifications, background sync, pop-ups and redirects, and sound autoplay.
• Storage & State: First-party cookies, cross-site third-party cookies, local storage databases, and clipboard access.

Permissions can be set globally across all websites, or configured individually on a per-site basis.

Configuring Global Site Permissions

Setting sensible global defaults ensures that websites cannot access hardware or display disruptive alerts without explicit user consent.

1. Open Microsoft Edge, click the three-dot Settings and more icon in the upper-right corner (or press Alt + F), and select Settings.
2. In the left sidebar, click Cookies and site permissions.
3. Under the All permissions section, you will see categorized permissions such as Location, Camera, Microphone, and Notifications.
4. Click into any specific category to adjust its baseline policy:
   • Ask before accessing (Recommended): Ensures the browser presents an interactive prompt whenever a website requests access.
   • Block completely: Silently denies access to all domains without showing approval banners. This is particularly useful for Notifications to eliminate intrusive notification spam.

Managing Permissions for a Specific Website

You do not need to navigate through settings menus to adjust permissions for the site currently open in your browser tab.

Using the Address Bar Security Lock Icon

1. Navigate to the target website (for example, a web conferencing service).
2. Click the View site information icon (represented by a padlock or slider icon) on the far left of the address bar.
3. A dropdown menu displays currently granted or blocked permissions for this specific domain (such as Camera, Microphone, or Location).
4. Use the dropdown toggles next to each item to switch between Allow, Block, or Ask (default).
5. Click Permissions for this site at the bottom of the flyout to open the full configuration page for that individual URL.

Managing Cookies and Stored Site Data

Cookies allow websites to keep you signed in, remember your shopping basket, and track your browsing behaviour across the web. Edge offers fine-grained cookie controls:

1. Blocking Third-Party Tracking Cookies

Third-party cookies are placed by advertising and analytics networks rather than the website you are directly visiting. To restrict them:

1. In Edge Settings, go to Cookies and site permissions > Manage and delete cookies and site data.
2. Ensure Allow sites to save and read cookie data is toggled On (disabling this breaks most website logins).
3. Toggle Block third-party cookies to On. This prevents external advertising scripts from building cross-site behavioral profiles.

2. Adding Site Exceptions for Trusted Domains

If a specific financial portal or internal enterprise web app requires third-party session cookies to operate properly:

• Under the Allow heading in the cookie management screen, click Add.
• Enter the site domain (e.g., [*.]bankportal.com) and check Including third-party cookies on this site.
• Click Add to save the permanent exception.

3. Clearing Cookies Automatically on Exit

To keep your browsing profile clean while maintaining active credentials during current sessions:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services.
2. Under Clear browsing data, click Choose what to clear every time you close the browser.
3. Toggle Cookies and other site data to On.
4. Under Don’t clear, click Add to whitelist sites you frequent daily (such as your webmail or corporate workspace) so you do not have to re-authenticate every morning.

Reviewing and Resetting All Granted Permissions

Over months of browsing, granted permissions can accumulate. Reviewing active exceptions prevents forgotten permissions from lingering:

1. In Cookies and site permissions, scroll down to Recent activity to view which domains accessed your camera, microphone, or location in the past week.
2. Click on any domain to review its full permission roster.
3. Click Reset permissions to clear all custom exceptions and restore global defaults.