Rather insidious...Flash "cookies"

If your browser has a Flash plug-in, it is capable of storing cookies that are not at all obvious.

I'm fairly security-minded (as I use OmniWeb's many features for filtering out the stuff I don't want), but this one I missed. And it really bothers me, because:

1. Nowhere in the contextual menu for Flash content is there any way to reach the interface for managing cookies (e.g. deleting them). For this, you have to go to a web page:

    http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

2. The menu does have a "Settings" item, which displays many tabs of Flash player settings. This conspicuously does look like a complete set of controls, yet it omits cookie controls completely. In other words, if you think this shows everything the player can do, it doesn't.

3. Although you can finally delete the cookies from the web site, I saw no "don't ever store cookies in the first place" option. So I basically have to keep going in and removing them. (You can limit storage per-domain, but this is hardly a solution as many come from domains you'd never expect.)

This is insidious, Flash is not being forthcoming about what it is capable of doing. Those of you on HN who are normally protective of other forms of cookies, what are your thoughts?