Cookies are small portions of data that websites often collect to help make future browsing experiences more personal for users. Websites generate and store these cookies on your computer when you browse them.
The data in cookies usually comprises of personal information like addresses, usernames, emails, passwords, and many other personal preferences. You can choose whether or not to allow the storage of cookies on your device. This guide shows you how to enable cookies in ‘Safari’ browser on your Mac computer or mobile iOS device.
HOW DO I ENABLE COOKIES IN SAFARI?
By default, the Safari browser is set to accept website data and cookies only from the websites that you visit. This setting prevents third-party advertisers from saving cookies on your Mac web browser. You can adjust this setting and have your Safari browser to always accept cookies.
SAFARI FOR MAC INSTRUCTIONS
To adjust the cookie and website data settings on Safari 5.1, Safari 6, Safari 7, Safari 8, Safari 9, and Safari 10 browsers, do the following:
1. Open your Safari browser
2. Click on the ‘Safari’ drop-down menu
3. Click on ‘Preferences’ at the bottom of that menu
4. Click on ‘Privacy’ in the dialog box that will come
After that, use the following cookie enabling steps; use the ones that are relevant to your version of Safari:
FOR SAFARI 5 THROUGH 7
– Go to the section labeled ‘Block Cookies’ and click on ‘Never’. Choosing this setting would allow all cookies to be saved onto your device without restriction.
FOR SAFARI 8 THROUGH 10
– These versions offer several options of how to manage cookies on your browser. Go to the ‘Cookies and Website Data’ section under the Privacy tab. If you want to enable cookies but with a certain amount of regulation, you can try the following two options.
a) You can choose the ‘Allow from current website only’ option. In this option, cookies would only be allowed from the website that you are currently visiting.
b) You can also choose the ‘Allow from websites I visit’ option. In this option, cookies would be allowed from the sites that you commonly visit, but third-party cookies would be blocked.
– The ‘Cookies and Website Data’ section also offers the ‘Always Allow’ option. This option would allow all websites to store cookies in your device.
ADDITIONAL SETTINGS FOR ENABLING COOKIES ON SAFARI
In addition, when you enable cookies, you can also manage how much websites are able to access your location information. When websites have access to your location information, they are able to offer advertising and other information that is geographically relevant to you. The downside of this is a security and privacy risk; anyone who gets access to your location data can easily find you.
– To manage access to your location information, go to the ‘Limit website access to location services’ section or the ‘Website use of location services’ section (depending on your version of Safari) under the ‘Privacy’ tab and choose the option that best suits you. You can choose to ‘Prompt for each website once each day’, ‘Prompt for each website one time only’, or ‘Deny without prompting’.
SAFARI FOR IOS INSTRUCTIONS
If you want to enable cookies on your iOS devices e.g. your iPhones and iPads, follow the following steps:
1. Click on ‘Settings’ and scroll down until you see ‘Safari’.
2. Click on ‘Safari’ and go to “Privacy & Security”
3. Under “Privacy & Security”, choose “Block Cookies”
4. For iOS 7 and below, select ‘Never’; for iOS 8, select ‘Always Allow’
CONCLUSION
Choosing to enable cookies offers several advantages, one of them being convenience when filling forms. Cookies help to auto-fill web forms with your personal information. Another advantage is that cookies help you to get personalized content that is geared towards your preferences. Cookies are also vital when doing online payments; renewing subscriptions could prove troublesome when cookies are turned off on your browser. Cookies are also quite useful in chat rooms and forums; they save some of your personal messages on such portals and they also save data on the topics that you have already seen. This means that the next time you logon to your chat rooms and forums, you will find them marked as read thanks to cookies. Therefore, all things considered, you would benefit from enabling cookies on your Safari browser.
