cookies
Latest
DIY your own draenei holiday cookies with Manalicious
If you're looking to get your real life well fed buff on this holiday season, it's time to get cooking! We recommend kicking off this holiday season with this how-to from Manalicious that walks you through making your own draenei-shaped sugar cookies. We think the results, above, are pretty darned impressive -- and we might even be able to pull off our own batch of cookies with these thorough instructions. If you're not a fan of draenei, with a bit of creativity you could adapt this to any World of Warcraft race -- or you can just appreciate the fact that you get to eat cookies, no matter their shape. That is, if you can bring yourself to eat these sugary works of art.
Daily Update for December 11, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Comedian bakes iPhone cookies to fool cops, but you probably shouldn't
Chatting on your iPhone while behind the wheel can get you into some serious trouble (not to mention an accident, so DON'T DO IT), but comedian Randy Liedtke thinks he's found a way to have some fun with the laws against such practices. Posting on his Tumblr account, Liedtke shows off a batch of new "iPhone cookies" he prepared for the express purpose of fooling cops into thinking he's talking on his smartphone while driving. "Baked some iPhone cookies to trick cops into pulling me over," he writes, adding "then I just take a bite and ask if cookies are against the law." We'll chalk this one up to a comedian doing what he does best, which is making people laugh, but actually trying such a trick could still land you in hot water. There may be no laws against eating cookies, but eating while driving (which can be considered "distracted driving," depending on your state and the mood of the cop that pulls you over) could still land you with a ticket. Unless you share the cookies with the officer... I mean, who doesn't love cookies? Update: Well... it worked. Sort of.
NSA reportedly leveraging Google cookies and leaked mobile location data to identify hacking targets
You know those cookies web services use to track your history and serve up personalized ads? It appears that the government is using them too. The National Security Agency is apparently leveraging a Google-specific cookie to tap into the computers of suspicious users, according to presentation slides Edward Snowden leaked to The Washington Post. With an assist from Mountain View's "PREF" file, the NSA can track a target's web visits, then identify the computer and send a remote exploit in. What's more, the documents also show that the outfit has used a program called "HAPPYFOOT" to map internet addresses to precise physical locations leaked by mobile apps when generating locally-germane ads. Perhaps the key takeaway here is this newest revelation's scope: The government could gain alarmingly precise information about individuals using data already spread throughout the internet, seeded under the not-quite-as-threatening guise of marketing and/or social media. Consider this a friendly reminder to clear your browser history, courtesy of Uncle Sam. [Image source: Everyspoon/Flickr]
Twitter's new targeted advertising hooks up with your browsing history
After testing it out for six months, Twitter's now rolled out changes that will tie its ads with information picked up from web browser cookies. Advertisers will be able to share browser-related details with Twitter, which can then match it to a specific user. Such information could include where they're browsing from, as well as the sites they visit, aiming to offer "highly relevant" ads, according to the social network's official blog. Twitter is quick to mention that if you want to opt out of its highly-targeted ads, you just need to uncheck the promoted content box within your privacy settings. It also reiterates its support of Do Not Track, and says that it will not receive any cookie IDs if you already have DNT enabled in your browser.
Google to pay $17 million as a penalty for unauthorized web tracking in Safari
Last year, Google ponied up $22.5 million to the FTC as a penalty for bypassing cookie settings in the Safari browser to track users. While Mountain View no doubt wishes this episode were far behind it already, the company will pay a pretty sum once again as the result of a settlement today: $17 million in a suit brought by 37 states and the District of Columbia over that very same practice of tracking users in Safari. From 2011 to 2012, Google used a loophole in Apple's browser that allowed for placing tracking cookies on users' machines without them knowing. The search giant's suffered more than a slap on the wrist, but it's still not admitting wrongdoing; in a statement, a spokeswoman said that the company "has taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple's browsers."
Google's AdID, an anonymous identifier for advertising, could replace the aging cookie
You know the drill: accept the cookie, delete the cookie, empty the cookie bin, and so on. Mostly, it's an exercise used when attempting to get your mum's PC to run a wee bit faster, but if you think about it, the cookie is one of the most archaic pieces of the world wide web that's still in use today. Naturally, Google is swooping in in a bid to change the status quo, according to a new report from USA Today. Essentially, the search giant is building an "anonymous identifier for advertising, or AdID, that would replace third-party cookies as the way advertisers track people's internet browsing activity for marketing purposes." Perhaps astoundingly, it sounds as if the project could benefit both consumers (by shielding true identities) and advertisers at the same time. Of course, pundits are concerned about the global leader in online advertising controlling the technology that tracks movements on the web, but to us, it sounds as if end users will get far more power over who sees what when compared to today's cookies.
Daily Update for August 13, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Stanford's Cookie Clearinghouse adds another layer of security to web browsers
People are becoming more vigilant when it comes to online privacy, so Stanford University's new initiative couldn't have come at a better time. The project, called Cookie Clearinghouse, will curate catalogues of websites whose cookies browsers should or shouldn't allow. As designed, it works along with a Safari-like patch Mozilla is testing for Firefox that allows cookies from sites you've visited but blocks third-party cookies from sites you haven't. Theoretically, that'll prevent advertisers or other entities from tracking you around the web, but the method isn't foolproof -- having a centralized list will prevent your browser from saving the cookies of an ad or a spam website you've accidentally clicked on. To establish which sites are kosher and which aren't, the folks at Stanford are slated to meet up with an advisory board. It will be comprised of privacy researchers, law pundits, small business experts, as well as reps from Mozilla and Opera. Unlike Do Not Track -- another Stanford initiative from which this one later evolved -- advertisers don't have to opt in for inclusion on either list. It's just up to developers (other than Mozilla) to integrate this more thorough solution into their browsers' privacy options. [Image credit: Brian Richardson]
Apple rejecting iOS apps for "cookie tracking"
Apple is moving developers towards adopting the company's own iOS 6 tracking technology and not their homegrown methods. One of these alternative techniques is cookie tracking and, according to a report in TechCrunch, Apple may be rejecting apps that use this method. To understand how we got to the point where Apple is rejecting apps that use tracking cookies, we need to take a step back to iOS 5 and earlier. In previous versions of iOS, developers used a device's UDID to track users. The UDID is a 40-character unique identifier assigned to each iOS device that developers used to track game progress, check subscription status and monitor ads. Apple phased out UDID tracking in iOS 5 and added support in iOS 6 for its own tracking methods, advertisingID and identifierForVendor. Some apps are circumventing these approved APIs by using tracking cookies that work on mobile devices almost like they do on the desktop. Craig Palli, VP of Business Development at mobile app marketing firm Fiksu, explained to TechCrunch that, "Within local storage, an app developer can drop a token -- an ID, if you will -- and then retrieve it later. In this regard, it works like a cookie, so the industry frequently uses it and talks about it like it's a cookie." Palli claims the number of apps being rejected for using this tracking method has increased over the past few weeks. He hypothesizes that Apple is gently nudging developers towards its own tracking technology. You can read more about this form of tracking and Apple's app rejection in the TechCrunch article.
Google accused of tracking iPhone users, up to 10m could sue in the UK
The Guardian is reporting that Google may be hit with a slew of lawsuits over the company's clandestine monitoring of Britons who use the Safari web browser on iPhones, iPads and Macs. Google admits that it bypassed Safari security settings that blocked sites from tracking user habits through cookies. Last February, security researchers found that Google's DoubleClick ad network was storing cookies on devices even when users had chosen to block them. In the US, Google paid the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a US$22.5 million fine based on the same privacy invasion. In the UK, the Guardian reports that at least 10 iPhone users have started legal proceedings and dozens more are "being lined up." Plans are being made to form a group to make an "umbrella privacy action." The total class size is estimated at 10 million users. News of the legal action was reported by the Sunday Times of London. Privacy advocate Judith Vidal-Hall was quoted as saying that Google was guilty of "electronic stalking" and was angered "that our data is either being sold or passed on to third parties." Vidal-Hall was one of two signees of a letter before action sent to Google execs in the US and UK.
Court approves FTC's $22.5 million penalty for Google over Safari cookies
The FTC might not have been impressed with Google bypassing Safari cookie settings in the name of +1 functionality, but it'll at least be satisfied with the outcome. A Northern District of California federal court has approved the FTC's proposed settlement, which sees Google pay a $22.5 million penalty in addition to altering its cookie behavior to respect privacy in Apple's browser. The fiscal punishment is a drop in the bucket for a company that might well make up that loss by the time you're done reading this; all the same, we'll take it if other web companies are more mindful of their behavior in the future.
Google Chrome 23 in finished form brings Do Not Track, graphics boosts for Windows users
As cutting-edge as Google can be, its Chrome browser has trailed in supporting Do Not Track by default; all its major challengers already have the option to cut off tracking cookies. At least that's where Google's fast-track development process comes in handy. Following a short beta, the stable release of Chrome 23 includes the DNT protocol to both safeguard privacy and prevent a few eerily well-targeted ads. The update is more fine-grained still with a quick drop-down menu to selectively turn off access to cameras, location and other sensitive details on a site-by-site basis. Even those who live their life in public get something: Windows users at last have graphics hardware acceleration for video, giving a lift to battery life on laptops and smoothing playback for those on borderline-acceptable PCs. More details are available at the source link, so get to clicking if you're not a fan of small text files shadowing your web visits.
iPad 101: Clearing individual website cookies
If you are like me, you open your iPad's web browser several times day, either by launching mobile Safari directly or by clicking a link in a third-party app. After a short time, you will accrue a long list of cookies, placed there by websites that want to save your login preferences or track the pages you view on their site. Cookies are not harmful, but they do build up over time and can slow browser performance. Thankfully, Apple has made it easy to remove them from your iPad either all at once or one at a time. To remove all your cookies in one fell swoop, you can open Settings on your iPad and scroll down to Safari in the left hand column, as shown above. Tap on Safari and, in the middle of the screen, you should see an option to "Clear Cookies and Data." Tap on this "Clear Cookies and Data" option and you will receive a warning that you are clearing your cookie data, as shown above. iOS will also close all open tabs in Safari during this removal process. If you are prepared to delete all your cookies, then hit clear and they will be removed all at once. Some iPad users, though, may prefer to keep select cookies since they store login credentials and other information that speeds up browsing. In this scenario, Apple has also made it possible to remove cookies on an individual basis. Similar to removing all cookies, iPad owners can open Settings and tap on Safari, as shown above. Instead of tapping on "Clear Cookies and Data" like we did earlier, users can tap on the "Advanced" option at the bottom. Then, on the next screen, tap "Website Data" to view all your cookies. This next screen on your iPad reveals all the cookies that are stored on your iPad, as shown in the screenshot above. You can swipe to delete each entry or click "Remove All Website Data" to remove all of them at once. I usually delete the random entries like newbalance.com and keep ones like eBay.com that may have login information. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy to keep your cookie cache clean.
Snag YouTube's redesign early with a quick browser cookie change
After a debut this summer, YouTube's visual refresh hasn't rolled out to all of its users, but the folks at OMG! Chrome! have stumbled upon a way for you to get in on the action a little early. Simply point Chrome or Firefox to YouTube, open up the browser's console, enter a line that'll fiddle with a cookie and you'll be able to cruise Google's video service with its fresh coat of paint. To open up your console in Firefox, just punch Control+Shift+K on Windows or Command+Alt+K on a Mac. For Chrome, hit Control+Shift+J on a PC or Alt+Command+J on machines running OS X. Can't wait to take the new look, which gives Google+ a nod, for a spin? Hit the source link below for the code snippet to get started.
Google to pay $22.5 million to settle FTC charges over tracking cookies in Apple's Safari browser
Google has agreed to pay a $22.5 million penalty to settle its dispute with the FTC, over the company's role in bypassing browser settings in Apple's Safari web browser. Although it stated that it wouldn't use tracking cookies or targeted ads in the web browser, a loophole was discovered, violating a previous privacy settlement between the FTC and Google. According to the commission, the company exploited an exception in the browser's default settings, adding a temporary cookie that could temporarily open up access to all cookies from the DoubleClick domain. While the exploit was patched by Google, for a limited time, it was able to track Safari users that had explicitly opted out. The FTC's full statement is right after the break.
Twitter teams up with Mozilla to help you opt-out of tracking
What better place to announce Twitter's embrace of do not track policies than during a privacy panel at New York Internet Week? Federal Trade Commission CTO Ed Felten let the news slip today -- a fact later confirmed by Twitter and Mozilla. The service has been added to Firefox's Do Not Track feature, letting users opt-out of data-tracking cookies in the browser. More information on the feature can be found in the Mozilla source link below.
The OverAchiever: Eat cookies, feel better
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the calm before the storm. We're between two major holidays at the moment, and frankly, both of them are kind of problematic. I was accustomed to thinking of Noblegarden as a happy event with a not-too-onerous time commitment, but after fighting off a horde of egg hunters in competition for the 500 Noblegarden Chocolates necessary for the Swift Springstrider, I'm not so sure that's the case anymore. Under the worst-case scenario, some poor bastard new to the holiday who wants all the achievements and the mount could find himself hunting a whopping 865 chocolates. "But you don't need the mount," you point out. "Getting the Strider is entirely optional." You must be new here. Welcome to OverAchiever! Oh, and next Thursday, we're on to Children's Week. I think we all know what to expect during Children's Week. So you know what? Today we're going to do something dumb, silly, and fun to make ourselves feel better before Children's Week hits and we lose all faith in humanity again. We don't often talk about tiny, one-off achievements in this column, but I think we can afford to make an exception. Yes, folks -- it's time to make some cookies.
Google to end support for cookie-free log-ins on mobile devices
Chances are this won't affect you but, just in case, we figured we'd give you a little heads up -- Google will soon end app support for mobile browsers that don't support cookies. This primarily means that older phones, most of them in Japan as the web giant points out, will no longer be able to log in to Google services. Some, like search and Maps, which don't require you to log in, will still be available through the aging browsers, but things like Calendar will not. The change will go into effect on May 1st, so, if you're still using a six-year-old flip phone to check your Gmail -- it might be time for an upgrade.[Thanks, Num0][Original cookie photo via Shutterstock.]
Microsoft finds Google bypassed Internet Explorer's privacy settings too, but it's not alone (update: Google responds)
There was quite a stir sparked last week when it was revealed that Google was exploiting a loophole in a Apple's Safari browser to track users through web ads, and that has now prompted a response from Microsoft's Internet Explorer team, who unsurprisingly turned their attention to their own browser. In an official blog post today, they revealed that Google is indeed bypassing privacy settings in IE as well, although that's only part of the story (more on that later). As Microsoft explains at some length, Google took advantage of what it describes as a "nuance" in the P3P specification, which effectively allowed it to bypass a user's privacy settings and track them using cookies -- a different method than that used in the case of Safari, but one that ultimately has the same goal. Microsoft says it's contacted Google about the matter, but it's offering a solution of its own in the meantime. It'll require you to first upgrade to Internet Explorer 9 if you haven't already, then install a Tracking Protection List that will completely block any such attempts by Google -- details on it can be found at the source link below.As ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley notes, however, Google isn't the only company that was discovered to be taking advantage of the P3P loophole. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab say they alerted Microsoft to the vulnerability in 2010, and just two days ago the director of the lab, Lorrie Faith Cranor, wrote about about the issue again on the TAP blog (sponsored by Microsoft, incidentally), detailing how Facebook and others also skirt IE's ability to block cookies. Indeed, Facebook readily admits on its site that it does not have a P3P policy, explaining that the standard is "out of date and does not reflect technologies that are currently in use on the web," and that "most websites" also don't currently have P3P policies. On that matter, Microsoft said in a statement to Foley that the "IE team is looking into the reports about Facebook," but that it has "no additional information to share at this time."Update: Google's Senior Vice President of Communications and Policy, Rachel Whetstone has now issued a statement in response to Microsoft's blog post. It can be found in full after the break.
