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I have a fresh Android 5.1 phone with two separate Google accounts already configured. I just started up the Android Browser and got a confirmation dialog about whether I want to allow Google to use SID and LSID cookies. The popup also referred some kind of Terms and Services document, but wasn't too specific about it. Didn't do anything about it, just went back to the home screen.

On second browser startup, the original confirm dialog was replaced by a popup showing an hourglass animation, and some status message about Google authentication being in progress.

On third browser startup, it just navigated to the factory default homepage.

Questions:

  1. What exact permissions did the browser / Google request on the first startup? What are the pros/cons for accepting / rejecting access? (I don't really know what a SID/LSID cookies are for, so please be verbose.)

  2. Is there a way to change my mind later on? Where should I look for this configuration option?

  3. Why did the confirmation dialog not show up on the second and third browser startups?

(Note: someone asked question 1. on the AndroidCentral forum 4 years ago, no answers received as of yet...)

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  • Same here. Just rooted and installed Cyanogenmod 12.1 / Android 5.1.1 on my S III, and got this prompt when I opened the browser.
    – Dave Burton
    Jul 19, 2016 at 16:27

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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From Google Privacy & Terms - Types of cookies used by Google

Preferences

[...] Most Google users will have a preferences cookie called ‘NID’ in their browsers. A browser sends this cookie with requests to Google’s sites. The NID cookie contains a unique ID Google uses to remember your preferences and other information, such as your preferred language (e.g. English), how many search results you wish to have shown per page (e.g. 10 or 20), and whether or not you wish to have Google’s SafeSearch filter turned on.

Security

We use security cookies to authenticate users, prevent fraudulent use of login credentials, and protect user data from unauthorized parties.

For example, we use cookies called ‘SID’ and ‘HSID’ which contain digitally signed and encrypted records of a user’s Google account ID and most recent sign-in time. The combination of these two cookies allows us to block many types of attack, such as attempts to steal the content of forms that you complete on web pages.

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  • This looks like an answer to the first part of the question (1. What is SID/LSID?). Since it seems generally useful to allow SID/LSID usage, parts 2. and 3. (how to opt-out later & why did the confirmation dialog disappear after the first browser startup) is a bit less relevant, but still might be of interest.
    – Attila Csipak
    Jun 13, 2017 at 11:21

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