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Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

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Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#291

Post by ocdtrekkie »

Flimm wrote: post #283
amt528 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why this has been downvoted. Tracking Protection Lists are one of the best and unsung features of IE. People don't realize that they're different from Do Not Track.

Do you have to set it up manually? How is this better than downloading one of the privacy-protecting extensions available for most desktop browsers?

Arguably, the fact that you don't have to trust a random third party extension code is a perk. And since this is a pretty straight up text file format it works off of, it's easy to roll your own or customize it as you wish.

As I said in one of my comments, it's a bit janky to set up because you have to select one of the Tracking Protection Lists from their add-on gallery to turn it on, there's no default list pre-selected.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#292

Post by abalone »

Flimm wrote: post #270
abalone wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Pay is a generation ahead of chip and pin. It obviates the need to enter a PIN which is more convenient and invulnerable to attacks on PIN terminals, which have defeated chip and pin in the past.[1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV

What about contactless cards? I personally find contactless cards, common in the UK, much more convenient than having to faff about with my phone, which may be out of battery.

Two reasons Apple Pay is better than contactless cards. One is security. For purchases over a certain amount, cards make you enter a PIN. This is inconvenient and also susceptible to attack. Apple Pay secures every single transaction with your PIN, made convenient by Touch ID.

Two, if "faffing about" is your concern (thank you for that expression by the way, i'm going to start using it), pulling out a card is not really much different from pulling out a phone. But the Apple Watch supports Apple Pay, and that way you don't have to pull out anything. It's really convenient.

If you're wondering how it works securely with the watch, it's pretty smart. You unlock the watch with a PIN when you put it on. It senses when you've removed it from your wrist, so it just stays unlocked until that point. Therefore all Apple Pay purchases are PIN authorized without having to prompt you for it or a fingerprint. All you have to do is wave your wrist by the terminal and confirm.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#293

Post by alwillis »

piyush_soni wrote: post #250
alwillis wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s obviously not true that nobody uses Safari on Apple’s laptops and desktops. Apple’s Mac sales have doubled since 2008 and is in the top 5 when it comes to PC shipments: http://www.asymco.com/2016/11/02/wherefore-art-thou-macintos... Shipping ~30 million Macs a year certainly isn't almost nobody.

He isn't talking about the number of macs sold though. Market share of Desktop Safari according to NetMarketShare [0] in May 2017 was 3.56%. [0] : https://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qpr...

Web advertising is such a cutthroat and low margin business that having 2–3% of all browser users become untrackable is a big deal.

Safari on iOS obviously has significantly higher market share on mobile and the intelligent tracker blocking is part of iOS 11 beta.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#294

Post by Pete_D »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #6
hellofunk wrote: post #3

It's unclear to me how these "trackers" work? How do they track you, is it cookies, or what?

In practice, User-Agent strings (which are just HTTP headers) have been shown to be pretty effective at uniquely identifying and tracking most people. So even disabling JavaScript and Cookies only goes so far.

Maybe the next frontier in browser anti-tracking is to stop sending a User-Agent header, or to build in functionality like one of the browser add-ons that randomly pretend to be different browsers.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#295

Post by MadWombat »

code4tee wrote: post #70

Sounds like this is more in line with what they did with ApplePay vs traditional credit cards--I.e. They give you randomized IDs each time so the other party can't track you from transaction to transaction. Adds can still appear but they won't know who you are, so it's a direct shot at Google and others looking to give people "targeted" adds based on user behavior. I agree it's an issue that needs addressed. Just bec…

"Just because I searched for X two days ago"

But would you rather see ads for something you might be interested in (however tangentially) or something completely random? Personally I prefer the former, as long as there is some basic sanity filtering involved.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#296

Post by alternativetoo »

eridius wrote: post #223
alternativetoo wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May be a member? They are. And I tried looking for an statement by Apple on that issue, couldn't find one. So until I see one, I'll say the lobby group speaks for them. Is the money that lobby groups works with organized in such a way that Apple's money doesn't go towards this particular thing? If not, what does "not supporting that stance" even mean? That they outsourced their fight for it, so that they can have the…

You're going to great lengths to argue that the tech company with the best track record for privacy is secretly trying to violate your privacy. You're wrong.

I'm not going to great lengths to $yourstrawman, certainly not in a kiddo phrasing like "is secretly trying to violate your privacy." I say what I say, in the words I use, and apparently none of you can argue with one bit of it, yet you downvote like mad regardless.

Were any of you even aware of the information? I looked at that list out of curiosity, and was surprised to see Apple. I was less surprised to see others, but Apple did surprise me. Not as surprising as the pathetic reaction here so far, but still surprising. And I don't take Apple seriously since the 1 button mouses, you know? I still believed their "privacy in our walled garden" stance, it's not like that required flattering them.

> the tech company with the best track record for privacy

I simply never bought into the premise that I have to pick among the presented turds. At that level of size and desire to be a middleman just to be a middleman, they're all trash sadly, and if you think criticizing one means bolstering the others, that's your outlook, another premise I don't share.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#297

Post by alternativetoo »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #257
alternativetoo wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 downvotes huh; anyone able to explain how the above is compatible with a strong pro-privacy stance? That's like saying you're a vegetarian, except for saturday noon.

Are you absolutist or absolutian?

I love how this comment of course stands. Keep staying classy.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#298

Post by piyush_soni »

alwillis wrote: post #293
piyush_soni wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He isn't talking about the number of macs sold though. Market share of Desktop Safari according to NetMarketShare [0] in May 2017 was 3.56%. [0] : https://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qpr...

Web advertising is such a cutthroat and low margin business that having 2–3% of all browser users become untrackable is a big deal. Safari on iOS obviously has significantly higher market share on mobile and the intelligent tracker blocking is part of iOS 11 beta.

Yes, it will be a big deal when it comes to mobile.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#299

Post by needusername »

abalone wrote: post #292
Flimm wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about contactless cards? I personally find contactless cards, common in the UK, much more convenient than having to faff about with my phone, which may be out of battery.

Two reasons Apple Pay is better than contactless cards. One is security. For purchases over a certain amount, cards make you enter a PIN. This is inconvenient and also susceptible to attack. Apple Pay secures every single transaction with your PIN, made convenient by Touch ID. Two, if "faffing about" is your concern (thank you for that expression by the way, i'm going to start using it), pulling out a card is not rea…

Also Apple Pay is always online authorized while contactless cards under a certain amount are often not authorized as a speed hack.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#300

Post by newscracker »

mtgx wrote: post #180
tannhaeuser wrote: post #26

Thumbs up for Apple distinguishing themselves by their pro-privacy stance, as opposed to MS, who don't have anything to win by Win10's excessive "telemetry" IMHO.

It's also a real shame they're doing this before Mozilla. Mozilla already has Tracking Protection but only for Private Windows. It's like Mozilla can't even embrace its privacy stance fully.

Not exactly the same, but there's Privacy Badger [1] from EFF that works on Firefox, Chrome and Opera. If you'd like to see a visualization of the tracking for your browsing habits, there's Lightbeam [2] from Mozilla. Both these have been around for a few years now.

[1]: https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

[2]: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/lightbeam/

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