iOS 10.3 Safari cookies won't delete

LollyDitt wrote:

I'm on a iMac computer and also use safari. Recently I can't remove all stored data either!! Also my computer has slowed down!! So do I have a bug? I'm thinking of getting rid of all computers & devices and going back to pen, paper & books. Life was less complicated and I was healthier before!!

You should post this in the appropriate Mac forum. iPhones and Macs use very different operating systems and troubleshooting for each is quite different.

Funny how every year about this time there are issues with iOS and devices? Just before a new product release or new iOS release ? I have an iPad Pro which last year was amazing, no need for a computer fastest ever and any other hyperbole you can remember, now less than a year later it's slowing up has issues with iOS, iMessage sometimes doesn't work etc etc, are we then to believe that my awesome iPad has lasted less than a year??? Or is there some credence to the conspiracy that apple puts things in the source code to affect the performance of older devices? Whatever it is they've lost me this year and I assume a few others, I had a oneplus one a few years ago but came back now I wish I never had so back to oneplus this year I think and also find an alternative to my iPad, a small drop in the ocean for them but better for me

Jiggy2 wrote:

Funny how every year about this time there are issues with iOS and devices?

Funny how, on any day of the year, someone is reporting issues with some iOS and devices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

I shouldn't need to change a setting, and have to *tweak* Safari to work because of the issue of "Delete History and Website Data" not working.

That is what beta testing is for.

[You have become better at correcting the first two letters in the first word of the paragraph... (723)]

Ok no need to change to private browsing as per your choice 😁 , use always block cookies in safari preferences .

But you cannot stop completely the storage of cookies .

Me use deleting entire contents of cookies folder from user library in my Mac , restart and emptying the trash , others not sure but that runs my system smoothly .

I don't think you understand what people are actually complaining about. Everyone knows the purpose of cookies. The issue isn't that they are stored or come back every time you visit a website. The issue is that they can't be removed at all, no matter what you do.

On the iPhone, the cookies are basically locked. Most of the cookies will read 'zero bytes.' It's an issue with Safari that Apple can't fix or doesn't care to fix.

You will find this issue with all devices. It's not Apple's fault. The blame lies with people who create websites and people like Google. There called Evercookies and they have have been around since 2005. Congress a while back complained about evercookies tracking everything people do online, calling it a privacy issue.

Why are cookies stored : if we browse a website the path is stored in caches and cookies folder of user library .

And if we enter into user library > safari folder > Local Storage here data of the system is saved , and in Databases > various links information is stored .

An example : To understand if we frequently visit same restaurant , the manager or steward remembers about us , and in the same way if we view websites the path is remembered that is saved in caches and cookies folder of user library .

I disagree, it is at least in part Apple's fault. We sacrifice a fair bit of control because of Apple's closed iOS. At the end of the day the cookies are only pieces of data. Within the realms of the phone iOS there is absolutely no reason why that data cannot be deleted.

I'm not saying the data won't be written back if you visit that site again, but at the point Safari is closed and you request the data deleted it should actually be deleted.

If sites are using tricks to make this data persistent then Apple is a multi-billion dollar company that could easily rectify the issue, but at this time it would seem they simply choose not to.

Unfortunately despite being a potential privacy issue the problem seems very low down on Apple's to-do list as there have been multiple updates all of which have failed to address the issue.

I wish I had read these posts before I spent hours trying to remove some sites that wont delete from the Advanced section of Safari.

So now I have removed the safari icon and it wont come back to Apple comes up with a fix

Again, tygb, this is about iOS safari, not macOS safari.

The cookies in question fingerprint a browser, which is a unique identification of sorts, and they track you wherever you go even in private browsing mode. When you get into a website such as identity.com, which is in the business of selling information about you to anyone who asks, that's a real problem.

Here's a explainer article from 2015 about the flaw Apple has not fixed.

http://www.businessinsider.com/super-cookies-hsts-security-private-2015-1

"Apple users are particularly vulnerable, as their devices do not have a function that lets users delete super cookies from their browsers."

HSTS Supercookies cannot be deleted except by completely resetting the phone. What I am asking Apple to do at minimum is to provide a way to delete all cookies that actually works for all cookies.

The user cannot change website behaviour , the website developers better knows , once you browse the website , cookies will be saved , set to private browsing and avoid saving cookies may be it is for iOS Safari or Mac OS Safari , of course in Apple iOS you have to reset the phone completely , you can send a brief feed back to Apple , so that they will definitely read it .

I recognize you are trying to be helpful.

Long post ahead not intended to rant but in the interest of technical facts to drive the resolution :

the cookies we are talking about can be read and possibly persistently set even in private browsing mode because the vector for these 'supercookies' is the HSTS support in the browser on the device. Even in private browsing mode it is trivial to fingerprint the browser and store that unique id. Private browsing only is intended to clear history etc when you're done with your session and what I'm saying is these supercookies aren't reliably removed then either.

The problem is both malicious developers and non malicious developers can use this pathway and currently there is no way to control it even with extensions like content blockers. This results in a great reduction in internet privacy even if you use a VPN, dnscrypt, and so on because they have a fingerprint of your specific browser and can track you wherever.

The cookies also cannot be deleted on iOS safari because the user cannot delete "caches" i.e. a type of local storage object used like a cookie. Therefore when you choose to delete cookies these caches are not deleted.

To get a resolution we are saying allow the caches to be deleted on iOS without completely resetting your phone on every new supercookie infection.

I've been having the same trouble for some time. Currently the cookie with zero bytes, that is showing is congress.gov, that is on my iPhone se, I am unable to remove it. This is a problem with Safari itself & has been going on for some time. On my iPad its google.com & congress.gov, this is extremely dangerous for Apple users. I also have no way of clicking on links to open as it goes directly to Safari, I have to copy the link and use the browser I use. I've gone to Privacy|Analytics Data and what I am seeing is frighting. I have a crash that says {"app_name":"Unknown""timestamp......how do you fix an unknown app, exeption type: (SIGKILL), filtered syslog: none found, I have no way of updateing to the current version with the new security features because a bug hit the brain service, iTunes is of no use because it just recreates the problem. The problem is maybe an SQL injection, not sure. But I can not for the life of me remove these cookies that falsly say Zero Bytes but track you just the same. Please lmk if you've found a work around, thanks

That's pretty much the work-around I've been using. Check out the Aloha app, I love it. The copy paste isn't much fun but worth it. They are working on one for the iPad. You may also want to check out gnu.org, they're work is pretty amazing. The way Safari is configured to connect to your mail, & abc, with no way to change that is something I may consider working on, I hope the Engineers get this one out of the way, far too much memory leaks. Thanks for the response