Are we getting rooked?circumvents default privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser.
Google's method of getting around Safari's default blockage of third-party cookies was detailed today in a study by Stanford grad student Jonathan Mayer and in two articles in the Wall Street Journal. One Journal headline calls it "Google's iPhone tracking," but the technique actually works across iPhones, iPads, iPod touches, and desktop computers. After being contacted by the Journal, Google disabled the code that had allowed it to install tracking cookies on Safari, even though the browser is designed to block such cookies by default.
Google says it was unintentional —the advertising cookies spread without Google even realizing it.
"Unlike every other browser vendor, Apple enables cookie blocking by default," Mayer writes. "Every iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac ships with the privacy feature turned on."
The code used by Google was part of its program to place the "+1" button in advertisements. As the Journal explains, "Safari generally blocks cookies that come from elsewhere—such as advertising networks or other trackers. But there are exceptions to this rule, including that if you interact with an advertisement or form in certain ways, it’s allowed to set a cookie even if you aren’t technically visiting the site. Google’s code, which was placed on certain ads that used the company’s DoubleClick ad technology... took advantage of this loophole."
Three additional advertising companies—Vibrant Media, Media Innovation Group, and PointRoll—were accused of doing the same thing.
Google blames Safari functionality, says cookies spread by accident
In a statement sent to Ars, Google's Senior VP of Communications and Public Policy, Rachel Whetstone, stressed that the advertising cookies did not collect any personal information, that they were an unintentional byproduct of Google adding new functionality for signed-in Google users on Safari
Colin
