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Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#31

Post by rapind »

ceejayoz wrote: post #9
vim_wannabe wrote: post #2

>“It’s not about blocking ads, the web behaves as it always did, but your privacy is protected,” he added. Does this mean browser fingerprint is somehow scrambled before it is sent to the tracker instead of blocking?

> Does this mean browser fingerprint is somehow scrambled before it is sent to the tracker instead of blocking? It might be homogenized instead of scrambled. Every iOS device could be given (barring IP etc.) the same fingerprint.

But then sites could easily identify and choose to react to that fingerprint. (But maybe that's OK)

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#32

Post by JumpCrisscross »

amelius wrote: post #13
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a number of ways. Cookies are one, but you can also collect other kinds of data from a web browser to uniquely identify a user across multiple sessions. Generally speaking, if you can run JavaScript, you can track the user. This is done by all advertisers and most little widgets like Facebook or Disqus comments, like and tweet buttons, etc.

> This is done by all advertisers and most little widgets like Facebook or Disqus comments, like and tweet buttons, etc. Why isn't this illegal already?

Most people don't know nor care about the issue.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#34

Post by oneplane »

notalaser wrote: post #22
amelius wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is done by all advertisers and most little widgets like Facebook or Disqus comments, like and tweet buttons, etc. Why isn't this illegal already?

Because it's highly lucrative.

And because it's very functional and easy at the same time.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#35

Post by ocdtrekkie »

draw_down wrote: post #18
binthere wrote: post #16

Later they demoed they can track your interests in what you've read on the web to show you personalized news on their news app and keyboard autocompletion.

They're also very careful to specify that this computation takes place locally on the device.

And if this is true, this is a huge plus, because nobody else is doing it. Because Windows is cloud-based for this stuff, just like Google. None of the 'smart' features of Windows 10 work unless you enable what amounts to a keylogger and the ability to send a lot of extra data about what you do to their cloud service. (Well above and beyond the telemetry most people worry about here.)

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#36

Post by JumpCrisscross »

tptacek wrote: post #29

This is great, but unfortunately, until Apple ups its browser security game, Safari is a non-starter. On macOS, switching from any other browser to Chrome is in the top 3 things you can do to materially improve your security in ways that actually matter in the real world.

What are the other two (for macOS)?

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#37

Post by yladiz »

tptacek wrote: post #29

This is great, but unfortunately, until Apple ups its browser security game, Safari is a non-starter. On macOS, switching from any other browser to Chrome is in the top 3 things you can do to materially improve your security in ways that actually matter in the real world.

Can you give specific examples why Chrome is significantly better than other browsers, including Firefox, Opera? Chrome is a non starter for me because of its resource usage and battery hunger.

One specific area where Safari is better than Chrome is in private browsing mode. In Safari, each tab is completely separate, and the cookies aren't shared (as far as I can tell) whereas in Chrome, it's only separate as a whole "private browsing session." They each have their pros/cons but I prefer Safari's model.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#38

Post by tobr »

tptacek wrote: post #29

This is great, but unfortunately, until Apple ups its browser security game, Safari is a non-starter. On macOS, switching from any other browser to Chrome is in the top 3 things you can do to materially improve your security in ways that actually matter in the real world.

I didn't know that. What are the specific security problems with Safari?

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#39

Post by tr1ck5t3r »

fjarlq wrote: post #25
hellofunk wrote: post #3

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

A decent overview: https://panopticlick.eff.org/about Test your browser: https://panopticlick.eff.org/

Its all in the JavaScript.

Re: Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari

#40

Post by dbbk »

tyingq wrote: post #27

The big question to me is whether it's enabled by default, and whether it blocks requests to Google Analytics. If so, that's an interesting shot across the bow.

This is actually really concerning to me. If they blocked Google Analytics, it would severely damage that data. It'd be bad news for site owners who just want to quantify their traffic.
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