Creating a non-tracking in-app web browser

Question

I am trying to create a webview (as an exercise) that does not track or store any browsing history locally.
I have made it so that when the webview is closed, it calls the following

[[NSURLSession sharedSession]resetWithCompletionHandler:^{}];

but I am finding that things like google search history persists some how between sessions. I have also tried clearing cookies separately through

NSHTTPCookieStorage *storage = [NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage];
    for (NSHTTPCookie *cookie in [storage cookies]) {
       [storage deleteCookie:cookie];
    }
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize];

still to no avail. Google searches still show when a new web view is created.
Is anyone aware of a way to remove the identifier that google is using to match that search history back to me? I'm concerned it's something like the bundle identifier, which is probably a bit trickier to prevent being read.
Any ideas are appreciated.
Regards,
Luke

did you try cleaning the cache also ? [[NSURLCache sharedURLCache] removeAllCachedResponses]; — Durai Amuthan.H, Mar 30 '17 at 19:32
I'm assuming so. `- (void)resetWithCompletionHandler:(void (^)(void))completionHandler; /* empty all cookies, cache and credential stores, removes disk files, issues -flushWithCompletionHandler:. Invokes completionHandler() on the delegate queue if not nil. */`. I will try that also anyway. — mylogon, Mar 30 '17 at 19:34
Set the Wkwebviewconfiguration websiteDataStore as WKWebsiteDataStore.nonPersistentDataStore() and see if it works — Durai Amuthan.H, Mar 30 '17 at 19:38
Incase of NSURLConnection ... in the delegate return nil for cachedResponse in the following delegate method `-(NSCachedURLResponse *)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection willCacheResponse:(NSCachedURLResponse *)cachedResponse` — Durai Amuthan.H, Mar 30 '17 at 19:44
Or else try removing the cache `[NSURLCache sharedURLCache] removeCachedResponseForRequest:request];` — Durai Amuthan.H, Mar 30 '17 at 19:49
As far as website request is concerned try to use `NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalAndRemoteCacheData` for `NSURLRequest` — Durai Amuthan.H, Mar 30 '17 at 19:50
Right on the money with the nonPersistentDataStore. If you give that as an answer, the bounty is yours mate — mylogon, Mar 30 '17 at 19:50

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 30 '17 at 19:55

Try setting nonPersistentDataStore for WKWebsiteDataStore of WKWebViewConfiguration

Here is a sample code snippet

let webVuConfiguration = WKWebViewConfiguration()
webVuConfiguration.websiteDataStore =WKWebsiteDataStore.nonPersistentDataStore()
let webView = WKWebView(frame: webviewRect, configuration: webVuConfiguration)

mylogon · Answer 2 · 2017-03-30T20:21:07.220

3

To compliment Durai Amuthan.H's answer, here is the answer for us plebs who still like to use Obj-C

WKWebViewConfiguration * config = [WKWebViewConfiguration new];
config.websiteDataStore = [WKWebsiteDataStore nonPersistentDataStore];   
webView = [[WKWebView alloc]initWithFrame:viewFrame configuration:config];

edited Mar 30 '17 at 20:21

answered Mar 30 '17 at 20:05

mylogon

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Thanks for the compliment :) I am glad that I am of some help to you and I don't think Obj-C developers are plebs :) you know old is gold – Durai Amuthan.H Mar 30 '17 at 20:18

Creating a non-tracking in-app web browser

2 Answers2

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