Delete Cookies

When on a website one is frequently asked if it's OK to accept their 'cookies'. Opinions may vary on an answer, but if you do accept them, should they periodically be cleared from your device? Here's a couple of articles with opinions on this.

Jim Hamm

Should you delete cookies? 6 reasons you probably should clear cookies (norton.com)

How the cookie crumbles

Cache and tracking cookies? Get ‘em out of here. They’re (admittedly helpful) little files that store info in your browser so you don’t have to log in every single time, and the stuff you add to your cart on shopping sites stays there for next time.

But they also weigh down your browser and should be cleared periodically as part of your tech privacy maintenance. Since many of you use Chrome, I’ve included steps for that browser below. 

🍪 Use Safari, Edge or Firefox? Get the steps here — scroll to No. 5.

  • On your computer, open Chrome. At the top right, click the three stacked dots. 

  • Click More Tools > Clear Browsing Data …

  • At the top, choose a time range. To delete everything, select All Time.

  • Best sure to check the boxes next to “Cookies and other site data” and “Cached images and files.”

  • Click Clear data. Voila!

By the way, your phone is full of cookies, too — here’s how to clear those out.

Apple Security Update

Here is a note to do an update on your Apple devices.

JIIM hamm

Apple has released emergency security updates in order to patch a new zero-day vulnerability that’s being used to hack vulnerable iPhones, iPads and Macs.

As reported by BleepingComputer(opens in new tab), this zero-day vulnerability (tracked as CVE-2023-23529(opens in new tab)) was discovered by an anonymous researcher and has now been patched with the release of iOS 16.3.1, iPadOS 16.3.1 and macOS 13.2.1.

The flaw itself is a WebKit confusion issue and if exploited by an attacker, it could be used to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable iPhones, iPads and Mac after a user navigates to a malicious website.

Online Search Engines

The following article describes how Google and Microsoft are looking to change how their search engines work. Instead of searching for and then giving you access to what has been posted elsewhere, they plan to use AI to formulate an answer for you. Is this a good thing, you might ask? I don’t know, but my initial thought is I like the way Google or Bing searches are handled right now.

Jim Hamm

Bard is going to destroy online search

https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-chatbots-chatgpt-google-bard-microsoft-bing-break-internet-search-2023-2

At a conference in 2011, its chairman at the time, Eric Schmidt, declared that search's endgame was to use AI to "literally compute the right answer" to queries rather than identify relevant pages.

Avoid Google Downloads

According to the 'arstechnica' article in the link below, it's best to avoid any downloads from Google because of malware. Following is a sort blurb from the article.

Jim Hamm

"Until Google regains its footing, people should be extremely cautious when searching Google, and likely other search sites, particularly for software downloads."

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/02/until-further-notice-think-twice-before-using-google-to-download-software/

Is Safari Reasonably Secure?

I read the following inquiry on a Mac Forum I belong to, and the member asked the following question:

"Has anyone had any known security issues with Safari? I'm beginning to see more articles about Brave and Firefox and their better data protection. I like the features on Safari and I'd rather not give it up.

I've seen a handful of sites that don't like Safari because they simply haven't been designed to fully work with Safari. For those sites, I use Firefox. Please share your opinions and experience."

And another member answered as follows, and I thought it was interesting and that you might enjoy reading it as well.

Jim Hamm

"By far, the biggest security risk with any browser is social engineering, in which some web page persuades you to agree to something you should not. This is largely a function of what you know and are looking out for, and the choice of browser is likely a small detail in all this.

There are some sites that work with some browsers better than others, so I too use both Firefox and Safari for different sites, and I keep copies of Chrome and other browsers for occasional purposes.

But overall, I don’t think true security issues are much of a reason to prefer one browser over another, and that would change every time any browser gets a version update, so it may not make sense to focus on that as a question. Maybe a better habit is just to do upgrades more often. One issue is that because Safari is part of the Mac OS, it only usually gets updates when there is an OS update. 

So, first, do all OS updates within a few days of when they come out. For Firefox and other browsers, reboot the browser periodically every few days even if you don’t need to reboot your Mac. Be prepared to switch and try different browsers on various web sites whenever things seem funky. Don’t expect hard and fast reliable rules to solve these sorts of things. Good luck."