[kimdouglasmason]

I have found that simply using Firefox with third party cookies turned off, along with the PrivacyBadger plugin and no flash installation provides a pretty good experience, while making you generally untrackable unless ip tracking, cache tracking, browser fingerprinting, or nefarious permacookies are used...

... and if those techniques are used by a big player, and it gets out (which it most definitely will), they'll have a consent decree (or worse) slapped on them so fast their head will spin. Look at what has already happened to Google when they were found to be circumventing Safari's third-party cookie blocking.

The main things that don't work under such a setup are: 1. Social buttons: meh, don't care. 2. Commenting systems such as disqus: again, meh.

The advantages are: 1. Most sites simply don't have ads under such a setup. 2. The sites that do show ads show non-targeted ads; generally related to the site content. Which is fine.

It strikes me that allowing cookies to be set or retrieved by third party domains was a terrible idea, and the current situation is a direct consequence.