after update to iPadOS 26, Safari not maintaining caches

after the update to OS26 on my iPad pro, I noticed that chrome and safari both no maintaining caches to websites I visit regularly.

I checked with the support chat bot and they pointed my attention to the “cross-site-tracking” feature, which I have enabled for Safari (switch on to prevent tracking) and disabled for chrome (switch on to allow tracking),

so after the update , it looks like if we want to maintain caches in our browsers, we also must ALLOW cross-site- treacking, which is an absolute violation of our privacy.

I would like to believe this is an unintended bug, and apple must fix it.

at the time of the post, I did not test this on iPhone or mac after the update.