WSJ: Google Tricked Apple’s Safari in Order to Track Users
The Wall Street Journal reported today that Google and other ad companies have been using special code to sidestep privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser and track Web users on desktop computers and the iPhone.
The Journal also said that on one of Google’s sites—in language that has since been removed—the Internet giant had said Safari users could rely on the browser’s privacy settings to avoid tracking by Google.
The privacy-skirting code, which the Journal said Google disabled after being contacted by the paper, appears to have been used to let members of the Google+ social network sign in and then, while moving around the Web, click +1 buttons in ads that are part of Google’s DoubleClick ad network. The +1 buttons let a user give a thumbs-up to an item and automatically share that approval with friends via a message on the user’s Google+ profile.
But, the Journal reported, Safari’s default privacy settings prevented the +1/DoubleClick setup from placing a tracking cookie to determine if a user had signed in to Google+. Safari normally blocks cookies used by ad networks and others to track people (though it allows other types of cookies—such as those that remember visitors so they can return to a site without having to log back in).
The code reportedly tricked Safari into letting a tracking cookie be placed, the Journal said. Safari lets sites place tracking cookies if a user interacts with the site, such as by filling out a form, and the workaround code essentially tricked Safari into thinking people were submitting a form to Google.
If true, this proves beyond a doubt that the company’s motto is no longer accurate.