Tracking prevention: Apple advertises data protection functions in Safari
Apple has launched a new campaign focusing on its in-house browser Safari – and its privacy features.
Excerpt from Apple advertisement: Is Safari the better browser?
(Image: Apple)
Apple wants its users to know that they can surf particularly securely with the Safari browser. That's why the company launched a new campaign on Tuesday evening that emphasizes how privacy-friendly the app is compared to the competition. It prevents cross-site tracking, helps to protect location data and offers a modern "private browsing" mode "with real protection". The functions are already active and part of Safari 17.
Apple's click tracking against Mozilla and Google
Apple, which has included the features in iOS as well as iPadOS and macOS, apparently wants to set itself apart from competitors such as Google and Mozilla. They are currently tinkering with successors to third-party cookies, which are intended to enable advertisers to track users without identifying them. However, both Google's "Privacy Sandbox" and Mozilla's "Privacy-Preserving Attribution" – only recently activated in Firefox without communication - have been met with criticism. However, Apple does not manage without such a function either: It is called "AdAttributionKit" (formerly "Private Click Measurement") and is even set to be active in "Private Browsing" mode in the future.
However, as Apple explains in its WebKit blog, this is limited to attribution in a tab - it is only transferred to tabs that are called up from there. If someone copies and pastes a link, it is no longer tracked. "As no data is retained during private browsing, pending attribution requests are discarded when the tab is closed." There are also improvements to link tracking protection. Safari now discards parts of the parameters to prohibit cross-site tracking. However, campaign tracking is permitted.
More privacy for Safari extensions
Apple has continued to improve support for web extensions. Extensions that can access website data and browsing history are now disabled by default in "Private Browsing" mode. However, this is not new for other browsers. If websites are not loaded via iCloud Private Relay, there will in future be a warning in "Private Browsing" mode that you may disclose your IP address.
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Apple had already implemented anti-fingerprinting measures in earlier versions of Safari. These are now said to have been tightened up again. "To combat fingerprinting, Safari presents trackers with a simplified version of the system configuration so that more devices look identical, and it is more difficult to identify a specific device. Many of our competitors do not go this far," the company says.
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(bsc)
