It may be used in a pre-loading technique but I doubt it generally is and JS could be used just as effectively. As a maker of a popular Safari ad and content b

It may be used in a pre-loading technique but I doubt it generally is and JS could be used just as effectively. As a maker of a popular Safari ad and content blocker, I was looking to implement a quick fix rule that would strip ping attributes from 'a' elements. Unfortunately the Safari content blocking rule syntax is not sophisticated enough to allow stripping of attributes from a HTML element. The best that I could do with the current syntax would be to hide all links that include ping attributes. This technique would stop tracking but it would also stop users from being able to click such links! A bit of a difficult usability choice – would users prefer functional links that are tracked and breach their privacy or broken links that don't track them?