Samsung's new beta update sees cookies expire in 7 days

share on

twitter /
facebook /
linkedin /
- email
- telegram
- whatsapp
- wechat
- pinterest
- line
- snapchat
- reddit

Samsung has released a new beta 17.0 update that will see cookies expire after seven days to minimise user tracking and profiling. Additionally, its smart anti-tracking feature will be turned on by default in certain regions such as South Korea, the US, and Europe.

The smart anti-tracking feature can be found under settings and would be set to "Always" on fresh install scenarios, and also if users upgrade their browser and didn't modify the smart anti-tracking setting previously.

Samsung's Internet Beta 17.0 will also use an HTTPS scheme by default when entering a URL, and falling back to HTTP version if needed. This will come in handy when users forget to check for HTTPS before submitting any sensitive information and use HTTP by default.

A privacy board will also be added to the Quick Access Page to enhance the entry point for security and privacy settings so users can easily access these options. It also offers the ability to have privacy reports. Similarly, this feature will be turned on by default.

samsungprivacyboard

Meanwhile, the Storage Access API allows third-party embeds to enquire and request unrestricted access to storage under third-party context by creating a permission prompt. The API provides methods that allow embedded resources to check whether they currently have access to their first-party storage, and to request access to their first-party storage from the user agent.

A third party website embed can call document.hasStorageAccess() to know if it has access to cookies. This will return false if the user agent is blocking 3rd party cookies due to current settings. A third party website embed can call document.requestStorageAccess() which may create a permission prompt for the user. If the user allows, third party cookie access will be allowed for this website pair even when third party cookies were being blocked due to existing settings.

Aside from these privacy updates, Samsung also included a few UX enhancements, including a bottom URL bar, a short cut to move to Customise menu, a drag and drop function in bookmark, and subtitle position enhancement in videos.

User privacy has been a growing concern among companies these days, with Apple pushing forth with privacy changes to iOS14 and Google announcing in February its plan to introduce more privacy ad solutions on Android. Google's privacy ad solutions will limit sharing user data with third parties and operating without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID which is a unique, user-resettable ID for advertising. Meanwhile, Google said last year that it will delay the phasing out of third-party cookies to mid-2023.

share on