Site permissions and cookies

How a site asks, and where to change it

A site asks in a window by the address bar: “… wants to” and what it wants. For the camera, microphone and location the buttons are Allow while visiting the site, Allow this time and Never allow; for other permissions, Allow and Block.

For one site, click the icon to the left of the address (View site information). There you find its permissions, a Reset permissions button and a Site settings link to all settings of that site.

For all sites: Settings → Privacy and security → Site settings (chrome://settings/content). There you choose for each permission whether sites can ask for it and see the exceptions. Sverk itself removes the permissions of sites you have not visited for a long time: Automatically remove permissions from unused sites is on from the start.

Cookies

Third-party cookies are set by other sites embedded in a page: images, ads, widgets. In Sverk 155 they are allowed in regular windows and blocked in Incognito. The choice is in Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies: Allow third-party cookies or Block third-party cookies, with the exceptions below. Either way, in regular windows the Sverk Shield blocker, while it is on, cuts off ad and tracker requests.

When third-party cookies are blocked and embedded sites try to use them, the Third-party cookies blocked icon appears in the address bar. If the site does not work because of that, click the icon and turn on Third-party cookies — for that site.

To delete one site's cookies: View site information → Site settings → Delete data; all sites': Settings → Privacy and security → Delete browsing data → Cookies and other site data. You are signed out of the site as a result.

On the ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS error page (the site “redirected you too many times”) Sverk itself suggests Try deleting your cookies: delete that site's data and open it again.

Notifications

A request to Show notifications comes with Allow and Block buttons. For all sites: Site settings → Notifications — Sites can ask to send notifications or Don't allow sites to send notifications, with the exceptions below.

How to show requests sets what a request looks like:

• Collapse all requests in the address bar — instead of a window, a Notifications blocked icon; to allow, click it → Allow for this site;
• Collapse unwanted requests (recommended) — selected from the start;
• Expand all requests — every request in a window.

Which requests are “unwanted”, Chromium decides by a prediction. Its model comes only through a Google service that needs a key Sverk does not have, and by default Sverk does not ask Google's prediction server. To keep requests from popping up, choose the first option or block notifications.

USB, HID, serial ports and Bluetooth

A site can ask for access to a USB device (to print a document, for example), a HID device (an unusual keyboard, a game controller), a serial port (to set up network equipment, for example) or a Bluetooth device. The request window lists suitable devices; access goes to the one you pick and confirm with Connect (Pair for Bluetooth).

To see and revoke access: Site settings → Additional permissions → USB devices, HID devices or Serial ports, where you can also stop sites from connecting. A site's devices also show in the View site information window, with a button that revokes access. There is no page for Bluetooth: Sverk remembers such access until the browser is closed.

Embedded content

A site embedded in a page can ask for access to its own cookies: “… wants to use information they've saved about you”. Allow it, and it learns that you visited this page. The request appears only when third-party cookies are blocked: when they are allowed, the site gets them without asking. In Sverk, by default, that means in Incognito.

Your answers, and a switch to stop such requests, are in Site settings → Embedded content.

Do Not Track

The Send a "Do Not Track" request with your browsing traffic switch is in Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies → Advanced; it is off from the start. When on, it adds a DNT: 1 header to the browser's requests — a request not to track you. How to respond is up to the site: the window that appears when you turn it on warns that many sites still collect data — for security, content, ads and statistics.

In regular windows, what protects you from trackers is the Sverk Shield blocker: it does not ask, it stops their requests.

Didn't find the answer?

Write to us at support@sverk.ai: what you did, what you expected to see and what you saw. Other topics are in the help contents.