《華爾街日報》報道說，谷歌和幾家著名的線上廣告網路一直在使用一種變通方法，繞過蘋果Safari和移動Safari瀏覽器的隱私限制，允許兩家公司在使用者電腦上存放cookies，即使該裝置設定為防止此類行為。爭論的焦點是Safari對待餅乾的方式。在預設設定下，桌面版和iOS版的應用程式都只接受來自個人特定訪問或互動網站的檔案，這些檔案可用於跟蹤瀏覽習慣。這可以防止來自外部來源的cookie在沒有使用者直接參與的情況下進入使用者的計算機。據報道，當谷歌無法使用cookies來確定使用者是否與+1推薦系統一起登入谷歌服務時，谷歌就違反了這一限制。

為了繞過這個問題，谷歌利用了一個開發人員Anant Garg在2010年首次發現的漏洞，該漏洞使用後臺傳送的空白表單欺騙Safari接受來自未經授權來源的cookie。斯坦福大學的研究員喬納森·邁爾發現了谷歌使用這種變通方法，後來《華爾街日報》證實了這一點。據報道，當記者聯絡到這項技術時，谷歌停止了這種做法，併在一份宣告中說，“該雜誌錯誤地描述了發生的事情及其原因。我們使用已知的Safari功能來提供登入Google使用者已經啟用的功能。必須強調的是，這些廣告cookie不會收集個人資訊。”

《華爾街日報》還發現，這項技術至少被其他三個廣告網路以及Facebook使用，Facebook實際上在其開發人員文件的“最佳實踐”部分中註意到了Garg的技術。谷歌和Facebook錶面上都為使用者提供了這一做法的好處，防止了在使用他們的服務時不斷地輸入密碼和登入。然而，這種做法可能很難證明其合理性，特別是最近使用者隱私問題比以往更為激烈。至於蘋果，一位發言人簡單地說，“我們正在努力阻止”有關的做法。

更新：谷歌已經向我們提供了關於此事的完整宣告：

The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why. We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It's important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.

Unlike other major browsers, Apple's Safari browser blocks third-party cookies by default. However, Safari enables many web features for its users that rely on third parties and third-party cookies, such as "Like" butt***. Last year, we began using this functionality to enable features for signed-in Google users on Safari who had opted to see personalized ads and other content--such as the ability to "+1" things that interest them.

To enable these features, we created a temporary communication link between Safari browsers and Google's servers, so that we could ascertain whether Safari users were also signed into Google, and had opted for this type of personalization. But we designed this so that the information passing between the user's Safari browser and Google's servers was anonymous--effectively creating a barrier between their personal information and the web content they browse.

However, the Safari browser contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser. We didn't anticipate that this would happen, and we have now started removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers. It's important to stress that, just as on other browsers, these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.

Users of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome were not affected. Nor were users of any browser (including Safari) who have opted out of our interest-based advertising program using Google's Ads Preferences Manager.