Block Third Party & Advertiser Cookies Easily in Safari
Starting with Safari 5.1 in OS X Lion, you can now selectively block third party and advertiser tracking cookies easily within Safaris’ preferences. There are some reports that blocking the third party cookie option is the new default setting in Safari 5.1, but if you want to adjust this yourself here’s how:
- Pull down the “Safari” menu and select “Preferences”
- Click on the “Privacy” tab and select the ‘third party and advertisers’ radio box alongside the “Block Cookies” option
Blocking these cookies is different than using a browser ad blocker plugin because it simply forces the ad cookies to not gather data rather than blocking the ad completely. Third party ad cookies are generally used to serve relevant ads to web users, this is achieved by monitoring web usage habits and then serving ads based on the sites you visit. For example, if you visit a lot of Apple-related sites, you’ll probably see Apple-related ads elsewhere on the web. You can read more about this practice on Wikipedia.
[...] Si no la tenéis en la primera opción y os interesa bloquearlas, pues ya sabéis lo que tenéis que hacer. [...]
This was set as default for me, can’t say I mind either. I get the feeling this is a move Apple can point to as evidence of minding their customers security and privacy.
It doesn’t really work.
exactly
It should be noted that Safari does NOT block cookies in Snow Leopard. Appearently is a bug in Snow Leopard, as the cookie blocking seems to work in Lion.
Safari does not respect user settings for cookie blocking in Lion either.
The worst part is that a naive user is misled by Safari to believe that the settings are active and working. Apple has had ample opportunity to fix the bug or remove the user option until a fix has been made; they were notified months ago about this bug. Safari itself has been updated since the bug was reported but the bug remains.
So, since Apple are willingly causing data to be placed onto users’ machines without their permission…
…it might be time to start checking the data protection laws in your local jurisdiction and making a formal complaint about Apple to the data commissioner (or equivalent).
Not to lead to prosecution (as if!) but at least to generate some unwanted media attention about a lack of security in an OS X application – which might prompt a quicker fix.
Whoever wrote this pile of rubbish is a raving idiot. The screenshot says it all: “503 websites stored cookies or other data” on your HDD.
Duh.
What is your point?
I noticed this too. Safari does not block third party cookies despite what the UI is saying for this option. To test, simply clear all cookies and visit a few sites. Take a look and you will notice MANY sites have set cookies that you have not explicitly navigated to. This needs to be fixed asap.
alert(1)
couldn’t resist a try
Finally got a response from Apple on this – they say the cookies ARE blocked – because they are not being sent back to the sites that put them on your system. Sounds odd to me but that’s what Apple told me.
Really, you can trust us. We’re Apple, you know, the computer for the rest of us. We wouldn’t do anything unethical. At least not without plausible deniablity.
I smell chinese (food?)
If it blocks such cookies, why does cookies from double-click.net, etc. keep showing up? It’s pretty useless/nonfunctional.