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Safari - web sites being added to my cache

Greetings! I have an IMac. I just upgraded to El Capitan and am using Safari 9.0. I do not use Facebook, Twitter, or anything Google-related, by design. Yet, whenever I am about to end a session on Safari and go into my Preferences -> Privacy and look at the Details of my website data, I always find a bunch of cookies and sites added to my cache that I did not visit and do not want. Many of them are related to Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and various ad trackers. My questions are:


1) Are these things embedded in Safari 9?


2) If not, why do they keep invading my computer?


3) How can I prevent them from invading my computer?


I know it would be "easier" to just let things be, but I guess I'm just not ready to completely give up control of my on line experience to the likes of Google, etc.


Any suggestions would be appreciated.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Oct 5, 2015 7:23 AM

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Posted on Oct 5, 2015 11:28 AM

I have discovered the same issue this morning -- using El Capitan and Safari 9 on a late-2013 iMac. I have no solution yet, but one clue, perhaps: My Home Page is the U.S. National Weather Service 7-Day Forecast page for my area, and that page contains links to Facebook and Twitter, and so on. As a test, I changed my Home Page to one without apparent links to social media and info-mining; however, I need to return to test this more because I ran out of time, so, sorry that I have nothing conclusive at the moment. By the way, I had my weather Home Page open and the Safari Preferences open, and I was deleting the unwanted Google and Twitter, etc., cookies, but they were reappearing seconds after I deleted them! This was not occurring in Safari 8 and Yosemite.

Best Wishes. 🙂

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Question marked as Best reply

Oct 5, 2015 11:28 AM in response to CMA

I have discovered the same issue this morning -- using El Capitan and Safari 9 on a late-2013 iMac. I have no solution yet, but one clue, perhaps: My Home Page is the U.S. National Weather Service 7-Day Forecast page for my area, and that page contains links to Facebook and Twitter, and so on. As a test, I changed my Home Page to one without apparent links to social media and info-mining; however, I need to return to test this more because I ran out of time, so, sorry that I have nothing conclusive at the moment. By the way, I had my weather Home Page open and the Safari Preferences open, and I was deleting the unwanted Google and Twitter, etc., cookies, but they were reappearing seconds after I deleted them! This was not occurring in Safari 8 and Yosemite.

Best Wishes. 🙂

Oct 5, 2015 11:28 AM in response to CMA

The links are embedded into the web sites you visit. They don't even have to be visible to the user. They also slow down page downloads and use up your data.


Safari supports extensions. There are many extensions available that are specifically designed to block ads and trackers. Do a search for them. I'm partial to AdBlock and Ghostery.

Oct 5, 2015 11:27 AM in response to LowenBehold

Interesting. My homepage is Apple's web site. I chose that specifically because I figured that Apple wouldn't allow other sites to show ads. Despite deleting the Google, etc., cookies etc. numerous times, I am still finding them over and over again - even when I use Private Browsing! I really hope there is some fix for this.

Oct 5, 2015 12:18 PM in response to Rysz

I checked out AdBlock, but it looks like it just stops ads from appearing on web sites. It doesn't say anything about keeping cookies, etc. out of your hard drive or caches. Also, I understand everything you do runs through AdBlock's server, raising another level of security concern.

Oct 5, 2015 1:01 PM in response to CMA

Generally, if the ad or hidden site isn't loaded it can't save cookies, etc. Cookies themselves are not the issue, anyway. They just hold "preferences" for the sites you visited. For example a newspaper site remembering what location to use to display as "local" news and weather. You can limit which cookies and data can be saved in Safari > Privacy, but as you discovered, thats not foolproof. That's why you need to block the ads and trackers before they load.


AdBlock specifically states that it doesn't require any personal info to run.

Look into AdBlock Plus, it works by a different principle and "guarantees" your privacy. Millions of users have no problems with it.

Oct 7, 2015 5:27 AM in response to Rysz

I appreciate your feedback, but I believe all these sites that are invading my cache are somehow built into Safari 9. I never had this problem before upgrading. I'm wondering if it would hurt anything to "disable caches." When I empty the caches, those sites go away, but the ones I do visit regularly are able to leave their cookies in place, making it easier for me to go back to those sites where I want to stay logged in.


Anyone - what happens when you disable caches?

Oct 7, 2015 5:53 AM in response to CMA

I've recalled since my first response to you that I had been emptying the Safari caches routinely and manually, before El Capitan. One can still do this. I do not yet know how to prevent the external advertiser-related parties from generating the caches. To empty or delete them manually, first one checkmarks the box "Show Develop in menu bar" -- this checkbox is on the Advanced tab of the Safari Preferences pane. After checkmarking the box, one see "Develop" to the right of "Bookmarks" in the Safari menu bar, at the top of the screen. And, looking down the selections under Develop, one sees "Empty Caches," with a short-cut key combo, and after emptying them, only the cookies remain.


According to Apple, the first cookie button in Safari Preferences is the most restrictive: "Always block: Safari doesn’t let any websites, third parties, or advertisers store cookies and other data on your Mac. This may prevent some websites from working properly."

However, if my quick test was valid, I still garnered 97 cookies and caches after visiting popular website reviews for ad blockers 😝 such as CNET and MacWorld!!


Sorry that my testing is hasty, owing to my work schedule and so on. I decided to try GlimmerBlocker first. I also looked at Little Snitch 3, but am unsure how many cookies/caches it would prevent.


Best wishes!

Oct 7, 2015 6:55 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks, Eric. So I gather that there is one set of Safari caches, which can be emptied/deleted, whereas I was, in my ignorance, thinking there might be a separate one associated with the cookies.


In my last response to original poster, CMA, I might have been misleading, so here is the Apple Safari description verbatim, for cookies:

~~~~~

"Choose how much you want to restrict websites, third parties, and advertisers from storing cookies and other website data on your Mac. Your options are, from most to least restrictive:

"Always block: Safari doesn’t let any websites, third parties, or advertisers store cookies and other data on your Mac. This may prevent some websites from working properly.

"Allow from current website only: Safari accepts cookies and website data only from the website you’re currently visiting. Websites often have embedded content from other sources. Safari does not allow these third parties to store or access cookies or other data.

"Allow from websites I visit: Safari accepts cookies and website data only from websites you visit. Safari uses your existing cookies to determine whether you have visited a website before. Selecting this option helps prevent websites that have embedded content in other websites you browse from storing cookies and data on your Mac.

"Always allow: Safari lets all websites, third parties, and advertisers store cookies and other data on your Mac."

~~~~~

I also looked at the Ghostery homepage, as suggested by poster Rysz, under the menu Why Ghostery, and the add-on was highly touted by the Ghostery folks, of course. I might check Wikipedia for a less-biased assessment. At least there seems to be no ads at Wikipedia . . . yet.


All the best!

Oct 7, 2015 8:56 AM in response to CMA

I meant "disabled" in my previous post.


In addition to keeping unwanted stuff out of my cache by disabling my caches, I have found that using Private Browsing for general web searches keeps unwanted cookies out as well. So right now, it seems I have taken control back from the invaders! 🙂

Safari - web sites being added to my cache

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