"accept cookies?" every time

TidBITS Talk
#1

iMac Pro, Catalina, Safari. All updates installed.

I find I’m asked the “do you want to allow cookies?” question every time I visit the sites that want to know: MacWorld, for example, or my bank, or numerous other sites. I have “prevent cross-site tracking” checked but “block all cookies” is not checked.

Do others see this? I find it really irritating. Or do I perhaps have a bad permissions setting? Cookies are being stored, but not whatever it is that tells a site “I’ve asked this question before”.

Ideas gratefully received.

Jeremy

#2

I have noticed this as well. My guess—not tested—is that this relates to the Safari “Prevent Cross-Site Tracking” setting, which prevents the use of cookies across multiple sites. My instinct is that the site presents the message because it detects that some aspect of its normal cross-site tracking mechanism is not working as designed.

What I don’t know is whether saying yes/accept simply makes the dialog go away, or whether the dialog is actually a way to get one-time permission to override your normal settings and allow cross-site tracking on that page. (That is—does choosing “yes” constitute enough voluntary user interaction with the tracking site to enable the cross-site cookies?)

Dave

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