If Twitter forgets your timeline preference, and you're using Safari, this is why Apple's Intelligent Tracking Protection (ITP) in Safari has implemented privacy through forgetfulness, and the result is that users of Twitter may have to remind Safari of their preferences. Apple's privacy technology has been designed to block third-party cookies in its Safari browser. But according to software developer Jeff …
> It may be a surprise to you, but "I want different settings on small-screen, low-bandwidth mobile and large-screen, high-bandwidth desktop" is a use-case.
And since Twitter knows from what sort of device you are connecting - Android browser, Brave on Windows, etc. - it can save a different set of settings for each of those use-cases, and use those settings next time conect from that same browser. It could also have configurable profiles, so that you could choose at login various preference profiles, e.g. profile1, profile2, profile3, moblile, desktop, laptop, fred1, fred2, work, home, ...
There are a couple of news-related things I occasionally browse on Twitter, but I don't have an account and all persistent cookies are disabled in my browser as is browsing history.
But Twitter still seems to have an approximate memory of the last time I looked at some stuff and automatically scrolls to roughly that point in the user's timeline - though only for some users and not others. So, unless it's a bug, I guess there may be some sort of fingerprinting going on, at least some of the time, that doesn't depend on cookies or other local storage.
...lazy, not competent or hobbled-by-crap-company-structure (probably the latter) devs stored user preferences client-side in the browser rather than in the user record on their side.
Why is this a stupid, broken design? Try using more than one web browser, or more than one device.
The whole point of cleaning out the web-dev-dumpster-fire of client-side databases is to stop malicious actors - such as advertisers - from storing things on your computer indefinitely without your consent. Thank god at least one browser out there seems to be trying to stop it.
@Adrian 4 “that you might want different preferences on different browsers.”
But would you?
Let’s take TheRegister for instance. Have you ever set its preferences (3 under My Settings) on a browser/device basis?
Answer you can’t, changing the settings will apply to all browsers/devices. Have you ever felt the need that TheRegister should have those settings local on a browser/device basis?
I really can’t see why you would need the settings/preferences client side per browser only to be lost when you delete your cache and cookies. Some above claim that there is a need for different settings based on screen size etc. But that applies to all websites the browser has global settings to allow for this. You should not expect every website to have its own settings to configure it to display etc.
Mobile (phones/tablets) are a problem which is why some sites still have mobile pages while the likes of twitter have mobile apps.
So, is there really a great need for different preferences let alone storing the preferences client side per browser. If there is, is Apple’s ITP any worse than the delete cookies and session only options on other browsers.
That's the "best" wording I've seen since a form asked me whether I wanted to forgo opting out of a voluntary exemption from contributing to the pension funds scheme about 20 years ago. (The only hint to what would happen was that one option said "I realize this deducts from my current salary")
I hope this is a drop-down where both options are labeled "(DANGEROUS!)", at least?
One of the social media companies that thrives on targeted ads makes a change that just happens to break on Safari because of the anti tracking feature that all the major advertisers have been speaking out against!
Safari worked perfectly on Twitter before they made the stupid timeline change, but somehow since they were forced to walk it back they managed to make their "fix" not work on the one browser that does something that hurts their bottom line. Pretty clear this was a deliberate shot across the bow to make the experience a little worse for Safari users.
Reminds me of years ago when ad blockers first started to become popular enough that web sites decided to start checking for them. I can't remember what site it was (I think it a major news site?) but it would simply hang when you had an ad blocker enabled. It wasn't 100% clear if that was intended or not, but they were forced to quietly back off or fix that behavior when they reportedly saw their traffic plummet as people didn't do what they intended (turn off their ad blocker to visit that site) but instead simply went elsewhere.
I do not block cookies, any cookies. They do not survive past the browsing session though. I strive for no web browsing persistence. I have been using this anti-tracking approach since I first detected the practice of web tracking. I do block third-party code by default, that is dangerous, remote code execution has it's own category of exploits. So I do not feel comfortable allowing my computer to execute code from an entity I do not trust (ad flingers for example) chosen by an entity I barely trust (anybody outside my circle of real friends and close family).
Google has weaselled their way into my paystream. My employer uses an outsourced payroll company, paperless and direct deposit required as is the new standard. Said payroll company is using Google's captcha service. Many other service providers I am forced to use are doing the same. It is fast becoming the only way to avoid Google is to go off-grid.
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