Cookie

6.3.4

6.3.4

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Purchased Cookie and Privatus when on sale a few weeks ago for around AU$20 which I thought was a good deal. I wanted to be able to keep my 'favorite' cookies and have all the non-favourites regularly deleted so that I am not being constantly tracked by unwanted spies. Seems you can only remove all of the cookies ... with no option of keeping the ones you want to keep. After playing around for almost a week, I gave up on Cookie and Privatus on Safari ... and downloaded the Firefox Browser on my iMAC so that I could use 'Ghostery' that I previously liked on old model iMAC, as well as adding 'Privacy Badger' that someone recommended. I am now able to keep my favorite cookies plus identify the dodgy ones which are automatically blocked as they appear. Combined with Firefox's own Privacy features and Little Snitch ... I am now happy. :D ps. I'm being generous with the 1 star ... I'll end up deleting these duds.

There seems to be a 5 comment limit, hence this new post. This is getting wearying, Russell. It's NOT about whether HSTS should or shouldn't be disabled, or why. It's about Apple saw fit to include it in Safari by default, and with no option to disable it, and while some users may not value it, it's just plain NOT YOUR PREROGATIVE to disable it or, for that matter, any security feature unilaterally with neither an upfront warning nor an included means for those who do value it to re-enable it. Bottom line! You can rationalize it, but you can't justify it.

Cookie only gets better as the developer works to keep ahead of the increasing and various ways users can be identified via cookies and other potentially intrusive data collected by websites and browsers. I consider it a Must Have utility for keeping my Internet travels private, out of the hands for potentially unscrupulous marketing, black hat and government intrusion nutters. There is nothing like it and I highly recommend supporting it.

Cookie has two faults that seriously detract from its credibility (and I apologize to all for not having exposed them long ago): 1. COOKIE DISABLES HSTS (AN INTERNET SECURITY FEATURE) BY DEFAULT any time it clears cache, it doesn't advise you that a security feature has been disabled, and it doesn't give you an option to change the default behavior. (Cookie's developer) Russell's response to my objections to his having unilaterally and with finality disabled a security feature was "if no one [other than you] wants this option, it’s not worth my effort." And THAT is as stupidly dangerous and bizarrely arrogant an approach to security as I can imagine. Security is NOT a toy for developers to play with, and no RESPECTABLE developer would disable a security feature with neither an up-front warning nor a means to re-enable it! 2. Cookie offers timer options to clear Safari's cache and history while it's running despite the fact that Russell has known for years that it is/was (see next paragraph) impossible to do so other than from within Safari. Actually, it has recently become possible for Cookie to clear Safari's cache while it's running, but it remains impossible for it to clear its history, and despite that, the option, which is a flat out lie, remains. And Russell's response to my requests that he remove the options/option was the same, "if no one wants this option [other than you], it’s not worth my effort." Sorry, Russell, but HONESTY SHOULD BE INHERENT IN AN APP, NOT a feature that needs to be requested! Other than that... GREAT APP!

Cookie 6 developer (SweetP Productions) is an unethical company. There is no upgrade path from Cookie 5 to 6 without paying the full price again. Cookie 5 disappeared a few short months after I bought it from Apple's App Store so you can't download it again. Despicable behaviour. I've filed a complaint to Apple.

I DO NOT recommend this product for the following reasons:

* Not long after buying it in March 2019 a paid for upgrade was released which is only free for
those who bought after 1 June 2019.

* No documentation explaining the interface. For example, it is not clear
why some websites are greyed out or what it means when the favourite
checkbox is ticked/unticked.

* Automatic removal is on but tracking cookies are not removed

* Essential cookies on popular sites are removed, leading to problems. You
can white list these but it involves trial and error.

* Many browsers are tightening up on cookies with new functions to
limit them. Having Cookie as an extra layer only complicates cookie
management and problem solving.

* I can find no way of contacting the owners (SweetP Productions) on their site.