{"id":42331,"date":"2017-09-20T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T15:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=42331"},"modified":"2017-09-22T11:12:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T16:12:03","slug":"learn-how-to-manage-cookies-in-safari-for-high-sierra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/42331-learn-how-to-manage-cookies-in-safari-for-high-sierra\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn How to Manage Cookies in Safari for High Sierra"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Safari 11, included with macOS High Sierra<\/a>, has a number of new features. It’s also one of the fastest browsers, at least when it comes to rendering and running JavaScript. But one feature that’s turning heads in the web-marketing arena is Safari’s new ability to prevent cross-site tracking using ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention).<\/p>\n

ITP, along with how Safari manages cross-site cookies, can cut down on the ability of web-based ad services to track your movements around the web. It’s this tracking ability<\/a> that leads to focused ads appearing in many different and unrelated websites. For example, after looking for a new winter coat at your favorite clothier’s web site, you might discover that wherever you go on the web, an ad for winter apparel is present.<\/p>\n

While Safari and ITP may put an end to many of the annoying ads that follow you around the web, as well as create a bit more personal security, it may also have a few unintended consequences that may result in a favorite website or two not working correctly, until they receive an update to work with ITP.<\/p>\n

You may find you need to revert back to the old way that Safari managed cookies when visiting a few sites, including some sites (banking and financial services come to mind) that use a centralized login system that provides sign-in service for multiple related sites. In that case, there’s a good chance that ITP’s machine learning system will mistake the central sign-in service as an ad tracker, forcing you to sign in repeatedly.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, we’re going to take a look at how to manage Safari’s new privacy settings, and how you can enable and disable ITP in Safari.<\/p>\n

Cookie Management and Cross-Site Tracking<\/strong>
\nSafari 11 (and later versions) disables cross-site tracking as its default configuration, so out of the box, you should notice less obviously targeted ads appearing in the websites you visit. To be clear, Safari isn’t stripping out ads from websites; the websites you visit will still display ads; they just won’t be explicitly targeted to you, based on other websites and products you’ve viewed.<\/p>\n

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(ITP may reduce the number or type of ads you see.)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But, wait; you say you’re seeing targeted ads even though cross-site tracking is enabled? Yup, you may still see targeted ads for one of two reasons: either the web advertisers have implemented new technology to get around ITP, or you’re seeing ads based on a site you routinely access.<\/p>\n

ITP uses a 24-hour window that allows for some tracking, mostly in the form of a persistent cookie that can be used to allow you to automatically sign in to a site. But third parties who provide web resources, such as images or ads, to the site can use the same cookie to track the fact that you visited the site. That’s why you may still see some ads tracking you around the web. After 24 hours, the cookie is automatically disabled for tracking functions, but retains its ability to be used for auto sign in to a site.<\/p>\n

After 30 days, the ITP system purges the cookie completely, requiring you to manually log in should you return to the site in question.<\/p>\n

Because ITP is a new technology involving machine learning, it’s likely that we’ll see updates to Safari that will make some changes in the cookie management system, but when macOS High Sierra is first released, what we described above will be the default ITP behavior.<\/p>\n

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(The ITP system that prevents cross-site tracking can be turned off from the Privacy section of Safari’s preferences.)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Enable or Disable Intelligent Tracking Prevention<\/strong>
\nThe ITP feature can be turned on or off from the Safari preferences. There are two areas in the Safari preferences that are used to control the ITP and cookie management system.<\/p>\n