Flaws in Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention Safari Feature Let People Be Tracked

safari iconGoogle researchers discovered multiple security flaws in Apple's Safari web browser that let users' browsing habits be tracked despite Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature.

Google plans to publish details on the security flaws in the near future, and a preview of Google's discovery was seen by Financial Times, with the publication sharing information on the vulnerabilities this morning.

The security flaws were first found by Google in the summer of 2019, and were disclosed to Apple in August. There were five types of potential attacks that could allow third parties to learn "sensitive private information about the user's browsing habits."

Google researchers say that Safari left personal data exposed because the Intelligent Tracking Prevention List "implicitly stores information about the websites visited by the user." Malicious entities could use these flaws to create a "persistent fingerprint" that would follow a user around the web or see what individual users were searching for on search engine pages.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which Apple began implementing in 2017, is a privacy-focused feature meant to make it harder for sites to track users across the web, preventing browsing profiles and histories from being created.

Lukasz Olejnik, a security researcher who saw Google's paper, said that if exploited, the vulnerabilities "would allow unsanctioned and uncontrollable user tracking." Olejnik said that such privacy vulnerabilities are rare, and "issues in mechanisms designed to improve privacy are unexpected and highly counter-intuitive."

Apple appears to have addressed these Safari security flaws in a December update, based on a release update that thanked Google for its "responsible disclosure practice," though full security credit has not yet been provided by Apple so there's a chance that there's still some behind-the-scenes fixing to be done.

Tags: Google, Safari

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
macOS Sequoia Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:04 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3. Mac users can download the ‌‌macOS Sequoia‌‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15. With...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...

Top Rated Comments

SDJim Avatar
68 months ago
Oooooooooh the irony.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
centauratlas Avatar
68 months ago
Apple is doing a good job with privacy and it is good Google is disclosing problems. What this shows though is that no matter how good one thinks that a particular company (any) is, things can slip through the cracks.

For example, someone might think there is no way Apple could have an issue with their iCloud encryption or with the servers housing the Apple private key encrypted iCloud data and in all likelihood they'll be wrong. Trusting any centralized source like this will be a problem at some point.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr. Awesome Avatar
68 months ago
“There were five types of potential attacks that could allow third parties to learn ‘sensitive private information about the user's browsing habits.’” said Google, everyone’s favorite data-collecting tech giant.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PickUrPoison Avatar
68 months ago

Rough week for Apple---

Ah, the good'ol Safari, one of Apple's biggest software troll since Cook.

Seems like Apple has these rough weeks quite often these days. Reality is a bitch when all you've got is marketing.

....about a company who’s entire business spin is about privacy and security

What but i thought..........................


Well it was a pretty long article I guess. For those who didn’t bother reading to the end:

“Apple appears to have addressed these Safari security flaws in a December update, based on a release update ('https://webkit.org/blog/9661/preventing-tracking-prevention-tracking/') that thanked Google for its ‘responsible disclosure practice....’ ”

?
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dave-Z Avatar
68 months ago

Reality is a bitch when all you've got is marketing.
So true. I used to love Apple, but since around 2015 I've had nothing but problems with their hardware and software. Their software is so buggy; I remember when things just worked and now odd glitches are a daily occurrence.

Personally I hate this Safari feature. I much rather have full control over what sites store/don't store. On my laptop and desktop I have Firefox reject all third-party cookies (there's virtually no legitimate reason to have them anyway), in addition to usual extensions to block trackers, etc. Safari is only used on my phone and this "feature" of Apple's causes problems because it's not learning the sites I visit and keeps deleting legitimate cookies for those sites so I have to login/change settings when I visit. There really should be more control for the end user but that's not the Apple way.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Swift Avatar
68 months ago
Meanwhile, Google can't build a browser like Safari because they make more money on ads if they let people track you by default. Google Ads needs it.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)