Safari update will make it harder for Facebook to track you

Apple is not here for Facebook's bullshit.

The Tim Cook-helmed behemoth announced today at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference that the version of Safari included in the forthcoming macOS Mojave will block social media widgets that track people browsing the open web. The example used? You better believe it was Facebook.

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"In Safari, enhanced Intelligent Tracking Prevention helps block social media 'Like' or 'Share' buttons and comment widgets from tracking users without permission," reads an Apple press release.

As Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi discussed this new feature onstage, the image projected behind him depicted a Facebook comment thread.

Block it.Credit: screenshot/apple

This was not lost on Facebook. The company's CSO, Alex Stamos, quickly took to Twitter to bash the announcement.

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"If this is about protecting privacy, and not just cute virtue signaling, then they should block all 3rd party JS and pixels," he wrote in response to a series of tweets from Cheddar senior reporter Alex Heath summarizing the news.

Tweet may have been deleted

Stamos then implied that while he thinks this is a step in the right direction when it comes to privacy, Facebook is being unfairly singled out.

Tweet may have been deleted

That's right, Facebook — which brought us such hits as Cambridge Analytica and "maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools" — is the real victim here.

But Stamos and Facebook should hold onto their butts, because Apple wasn't even done throwing the anti-tracking shade.

"Safari now also presents simplified system information when users browse the web," the press release continued, "preventing them from being tracked based on their system configuration."

This announcement echoes past comments made by Cook regarding the company's stance on user privacy and how that view clashes with Facebook's.

We can't wait to see where this Apple-versus-Facebook beef goes. Here's hoping however that it's not the people of the world who are forced to deal with the fallout.

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TopicsAppleFacebookWWDC