Setting the Record Straight on Google's Safari Tracking

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Setting the Record Straight on Google’s Safari Tracking

Jonathan Mayer clarifies his findings in this followup article

By MichaelJ

Technology • February 2012 • Views: 1,658

webpolicy.org

Our recent research on Google’s circumvention of the Safari cookie blocking feature has led to some confusion, in part owing to the company’s statement in response (reproduced in its entirety below). This post is an attempt to elucidate the central issues. As with the original writeup, I aim for a neutral viewpoint in the interest of establishing a common factual understanding.

Read this article and formulate your own conclusions. I think Google comes off looking pretty bad overall.

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7 comments

Buck Sat, Feb 25, 2012 3:29:09pm

Seriously. The fan boy media has this twisted around. A serious bug was found in Apples browser that leaked private data to web sites. Apple will try and patch thier code to stop this exploit.

Buck Sat, Feb 25, 2012 3:44:37pm

Google created this 1+ feature and when it didn’t work for various browsers, it debugged and created code to make it work.

MichaelJ Sat, Feb 25, 2012 3:52:23pm

re: #1 Buck

The fanboy that wrote this piece is a graduate student at Stanford University who explicitly states “As with the original writeup, I aim for a neutral viewpoint in the interest of establishing a common factual understanding.”. You are completely wrong.

Buck Sat, Feb 25, 2012 3:55:17pm

re: #3 MichaelJ

The fanboy that wrote this piece is a graduate student at Stanford University who explicitly states “As with the original writeup, I aim for a neutral viewpoint in the interest of establishing a common factual understanding.”. You are completely wrong.

Ya, I bet he uses a Mac and an iPhone.

MichaelJ Sat, Feb 25, 2012 4:39:30pm

re: #4 Buck

Ok, you got me. I thought you were interested in a rational discussion.

Buck Sat, Feb 25, 2012 8:01:19pm

re: #5 MichaelJ

Ok, you got me. I thought you were interested in a rational discussion.

I did that. A serious bug was found in Apples browser that leaked private data to web sites. Apple will try and patch thier code to stop this exploit.

Telling me that the writer says he aims to be neutral doesn’t mean that he was neutral.

MichaelJ Sun, Feb 26, 2012 11:05:01am

re: #6 Buck

Where are you getting your information about a serious bug in Safari from? I’d like to see your sources for this, since you seem to think Google did nothing and it was all because of a bug in Safari. When a company writes code that explicitly compromises a privacy setting in any browser, that is BAD. It doesn’t exactly jibe with Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto.

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