Google Accused of Bypassing Safari's Privacy Controls

DJRumpy points out an article (based on a possibly paywalled WSJ report) describing how Google and other ad networks wrote code that would bypass the privacy settings of Apple's Safari web browser. 'The default settings of Safari block cookies "from third parties and advertisers," a setting that is supposed to only allow sites that the user is directly interacting with to save a cookie (client side data that remote web servers can later access in subsequent visits). ... The report notes that "Google added coding to some of its ads that made Safari think that a person was submitting an invisible form to Google. Safari would then let Google install a cookie on the phone or computer.' Google says this mischaracterizes what the code does, claiming it simply enables 'features for signed-in Google users on Safari who had opted to see personalized ads and other content — such as the ability to “+1” things that interest them.' Google adds that the data transferred between Safari and Google's servers was anonymized. John Battelle writes that the WSJ's story is sensationalist, but that it raises good questions about the practices of ad networks as well as Apple's efforts to stymie industry-standard practices.

Comments

Re:And people ask me why I don't use Chrome

[MrKevvy]

I support a locked-down corporate image. I'm surprised at the number of people I support that I've found using Chrome.

Yesterday I talked to someone and asked how she got it and she said that a site prompted her to install it so she did. I just tried this and was able to install it on the locked-down image, including setting it as default, etc. It may have put its settings in the user-writable area of the registry but it's very sneaky to do so whereas other browsers will refuse to install without admin. privileges. Hey, whatever leads to higher market share, right?