Opera Touch blocks website cookies on iOS – TechCrunch



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Last autumn, Opera introduces Opera Touch for iOS – a solid alternative to Safari on iPhone, optimized for one-handed use. Today, the company deploys a new feature in this application: blocking cookies. Yes, he can now block annoying dialogs that ask you to accept cookies from the website. These are particularly problematic on mobile, where they often completely interrupt your ability to view content, unlike many desktop websites where you can (somehow) ignore the contextual banner that appears at the bottom or top. of the page. .

The cookie dialogues are becoming more prevalent on the Web as a result of the European GDPR, but many people find them overly intrusive. Today, you need an extra click to ignore these prompts, which slows down web browsing – especially for those times when you're looking for specific information and visit multiple websites in quick succession.

The cookie blocking feature was launched for the first time in November on Opera's flagship Android app, but it was not yet available for iOS – via a browser application, which means not one of Opera. The company said it uses a mixture of CSS and JavaScript heuristic methods to block prompts.

At launch, Opera said it had tested the feature with some 15,000 sites.

It is important to note that the default setting of the cookie blocker on Opera Touch will allow websites to set cookies.

Here is how it works. When you enable this feature, the dialog boxes do not display, which allows you to read a website without having to first close the prompt. However, when you enable the Cookie Blocker option, another setting is also enabled: a setting that says "Automatically accept cookie dialogs".

This means that, in practice, when you enable the cookie blocker, you also enable the acceptance of cookies if you do not do anything more.

But Opera says you can disable this checkbox if you do not want your browser to accept websites.

In addition to the new cookies blocking, the browser has many other options that make it an interesting alternative to Safari on iOS or Google Chrome.

For example, if offers an integrated blocking of ads, a cryptocurrency removal protection (which prevents malicious sites from using your device's resources to exploit crypto-currencies), a way to Send web content to your PC via Opera's "Flow" technology and – more importantly – a design focused on using the application with one-handed operation.

Since the launch of the app in April, the company has deployed 23 new features in total. This includes a new dark theme, as well as the addition of a private mode, as well as a search engine offering 11 options, including Qwant and DuckDuckGo, as well as other features.

The application is downloadable for free on iOS.

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