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This is not good! I thought Apple were way out in front when it came to tracking and whatnot... My wife uses a MAC at home and was complaining about how slow

This is not good! I thought Apple were way out in front when it came to tracking and whatnot... My wife uses a MAC at home and was complaining about how slow our internet was (70Mb down... not slow) a while back. She mainly looks at news sites and when I saw what she was looking at I knew the problem wasn't the internet connection. The entire page, apart from a tiny bit in the middle, was cluttered with moving shit! I installed uBlock Origin and... the result was fantastic: pages loaded in a fraction of the time. When she realised that the articles were a tiny proportion of the downloaded crap she realised she'd been missing out for so long. Once, when the MAC went back for repair, it was replaced with a new one and OMG the horror when she fired up Safari and it had no blocker... UBlock Origin to the rescue. I agree with one of the other comments on here: The web is utterly unusable without it.

kstrauser 7y ago
Apple isn't ending ad blockers. They're ending the specific API that uBlock Origin uses. For instance, I use 1Blocker on Mac and iOS and it does a great job of blocking ads using the still-supported APIs.
ChrisLTD 7y ago
Apple is trying to thread the needle. They want to allow content blocking, but they do not want to allow content blocking plugins to see and potentially report on what sites you visit. Personally, I’m totally cool with the trade-off of having less capable ad blocking functionality, if I can be sure my web plugins aren’t a security or privacy risk.
- deftturtle 7y ago
  I don’t see why Safari can’t block extensions from sending data to remote servers. Seems like a pretty basic thing, so we have more powerful tools and not the privacy risks
  - om2 7y ago
    Preventing exfiltration by a tool that's by definition allowed to affect outgoing network traffic via blocking is an impossible problem.
- commoner 7y ago
  uBlock Origin is completely free and open source. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/ https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/ It's a very popular project on GitHub with many developers scrutinizing any changes to the codebase. Fears of uBlock Origin being a "security or privacy risk" based on code in the extension are unfounded.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    It's not whether uBlock Origin is a security risk, it's whether the APIs it's using are a security risk, lest they fall into the hands of a less benign actor. (I also wish they'd kept the APIs open, just stating the other case.)
    - PostOnce 7y ago
      You're complaining that a general purpose computer can be used for... general purposes. Computers should do what their users tell them to. I wouldn't appreciate a smartknife with a blade that only extended when something I was authorized to cut was in range. "Unrecognized cultivar". Tools do the work their possessors wish. Why would you let someone limit your tools? It's everywhere now. It's in the coffee pods. Why does everyone else know better than the user what the user should be doing?
      - lotsofpulp 7y ago
        >Why does everyone else know better than the user what the user should be doing? See windows and the malware infested ecosystem. People obviously don’t know what they’re doing, and/or don’t have the time vet every little action they do on their computer.
        danShumway 7y ago
        But uBlock Origin keeps me safe online. I'm sympathetic to concerns about people who don't know what they're doing, but if I'm a Safari user, I have to value keeping myself safe first. This change makes ordinary users safer, but makes power users less safe. I understand why Apple is doing it. But I'm still going to advise responsible owners to ditch Safari and pick a browser that will do a better job of blocking trackers.
- tyingq 7y ago
  They are already familiar with how to run a comprehensive review of apps. They could just replicate that for extensions.
  - ChrisLTD 7y ago
    Apple is doing reviews for extensions, and also tightening up the APIs at the same time. At least on the Mac you've got alternatives if you're willing to make a different trade off. iPhone users and ChromeOS users are stuck.
  - pwinnski 7y ago
    They can do that for apps because apps are compiled and submitted. The expressly do not allow for dynamic code execution within apps to keep functionality from changing after their review. That cannot be "just replicate"d for javascript extensions.
    - rwiggum 7y ago
      > The expressly do not allow for dynamic code execution within apps to keep functionality from changing after their review. This is false. You can deploy a react native app with dynamic code downloading and execution to the apple app store.
    - wmp56 7y ago
      > That cannot be "just replicate"d for javascript extensions. This is false too. If extensions aren't allowed to communicate with the internet and can't auto-update themselves, then they also can't run arbitrary code without the user's consent.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
userbinator 7y ago
Count me as another one who really doesn't understand how others can stand the unfiltered "Modern Web", although I use a combination of JS whitelisting, HOSTS file, and a filtering proxy, so I might be on the extreme end. I've had to help others, whose computers did not have such blocking software (and they might not want to), and had to physically put my hand over parts of pages "cluttered with moving shit" in order that it would not distract me and allow focusing on the content itself. These people are also the ones who tend to miss details in instructions and seem to blindly ignore things like (actually important) notifications and warning messages, which leads me to wonder if their natural state of mind while reading pages is so distracted that they have trouble focusing.
bArray 7y ago
Can you even begin to imagine how much of the Internet's total bandwidth is used on adware/shovelware/crapware? And crazier still, how much of the world finds most of the web completely unusable as a result? Imagine trying to browse modern web pages on a dial-up speed connection. Many sites now completely refuse to load until you load their JS, which calls some external JS, which then renders the page. I run almost every web page without JS and Cloudflare is the number 1 reason for not being able to access a page.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
I remember a while ago I had to use the internet on my girlfriend’s laptop. I have been using adblockers for a long time and I had no idea how bad the internet really is. All the ads and other stuff are unbearable to me.
pcr910303 7y ago
It’s not like Safari is blocking all ad blockers like Google Chrome did... its more of deprecating & removing APIs that can be abused to track users browsing history by disguising itself into a browser extension. Safari provides an alternative API that allows content blocking, that IMHO is better considering that * it doesn’t allow leaking browsing history * it runs in native code (not js like alternative ad blockers) so much fast In a way, Apple is doing this to protect user privacy.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Apple is doing pretty much exactly the same thing Google is.
  - pcr910303 7y ago
    Last time I checked, Google Chrome doesn’t offer an alternative API that allows efficient ad blocking. In contrast, Apple has introduced & provided the API for a few years, and popularized the idea of mobile win ad blockers. I can’t see how Apple is doing ‘pretty much the same as Google’. Can you clarify?
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      Google is adding essentially the same thing with Manifestv3 and has been raked over the coals for it.

kstrauser 7y ago

Apple isn't ending ad blockers. They're ending the specific API that uBlock Origin uses. For instance, I use 1Blocker on Mac and iOS and it does a great job of blocking ads using the still-supported APIs.

ChrisLTD 7y ago

Apple is trying to thread the needle. They want to allow content blocking, but they do not want to allow content blocking plugins to see and potentially report on what sites you visit. Personally, I’m totally cool with the trade-off of having less capable ad blocking functionality, if I can be sure my web plugins aren’t a security or privacy risk.

deftturtle 7y ago
I don’t see why Safari can’t block extensions from sending data to remote servers. Seems like a pretty basic thing, so we have more powerful tools and not the privacy risks
- om2 7y ago
  Preventing exfiltration by a tool that's by definition allowed to affect outgoing network traffic via blocking is an impossible problem.
commoner 7y ago
uBlock Origin is completely free and open source. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/ https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/ It's a very popular project on GitHub with many developers scrutinizing any changes to the codebase. Fears of uBlock Origin being a "security or privacy risk" based on code in the extension are unfounded.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  It's not whether uBlock Origin is a security risk, it's whether the APIs it's using are a security risk, lest they fall into the hands of a less benign actor. (I also wish they'd kept the APIs open, just stating the other case.)
  - PostOnce 7y ago
    You're complaining that a general purpose computer can be used for... general purposes. Computers should do what their users tell them to. I wouldn't appreciate a smartknife with a blade that only extended when something I was authorized to cut was in range. "Unrecognized cultivar". Tools do the work their possessors wish. Why would you let someone limit your tools? It's everywhere now. It's in the coffee pods. Why does everyone else know better than the user what the user should be doing?
    - lotsofpulp 7y ago
      >Why does everyone else know better than the user what the user should be doing? See windows and the malware infested ecosystem. People obviously don’t know what they’re doing, and/or don’t have the time vet every little action they do on their computer.
      - danShumway 7y ago
        But uBlock Origin keeps me safe online. I'm sympathetic to concerns about people who don't know what they're doing, but if I'm a Safari user, I have to value keeping myself safe first. This change makes ordinary users safer, but makes power users less safe. I understand why Apple is doing it. But I'm still going to advise responsible owners to ditch Safari and pick a browser that will do a better job of blocking trackers.
tyingq 7y ago
They are already familiar with how to run a comprehensive review of apps. They could just replicate that for extensions.
- ChrisLTD 7y ago
  Apple is doing reviews for extensions, and also tightening up the APIs at the same time. At least on the Mac you've got alternatives if you're willing to make a different trade off. iPhone users and ChromeOS users are stuck.
- pwinnski 7y ago
  They can do that for apps because apps are compiled and submitted. The expressly do not allow for dynamic code execution within apps to keep functionality from changing after their review. That cannot be "just replicate"d for javascript extensions.
  - rwiggum 7y ago
    > The expressly do not allow for dynamic code execution within apps to keep functionality from changing after their review. This is false. You can deploy a react native app with dynamic code downloading and execution to the apple app store.
  - wmp56 7y ago
    > That cannot be "just replicate"d for javascript extensions. This is false too. If extensions aren't allowed to communicate with the internet and can't auto-update themselves, then they also can't run arbitrary code without the user's consent.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

userbinator 7y ago

Count me as another one who really doesn't understand how others can stand the unfiltered "Modern Web", although I use a combination of JS whitelisting, HOSTS file, and a filtering proxy, so I might be on the extreme end. I've had to help others, whose computers did not have such blocking software (and they might not want to), and had to physically put my hand over parts of pages "cluttered with moving shit" in order that it would not distract me and allow focusing on the content itself. These people are also the ones who tend to miss details in instructions and seem to blindly ignore things like (actually important) notifications and warning messages, which leads me to wonder if their natural state of mind while reading pages is so distracted that they have trouble focusing.

bArray 7y ago

Can you even begin to imagine how much of the Internet's total bandwidth is used on adware/shovelware/crapware? And crazier still, how much of the world finds most of the web completely unusable as a result? Imagine trying to browse modern web pages on a dial-up speed connection. Many sites now completely refuse to load until you load their JS, which calls some external JS, which then renders the page. I run almost every web page without JS and Cloudflare is the number 1 reason for not being able to access a page.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

I remember a while ago I had to use the internet on my girlfriend’s laptop. I have been using adblockers for a long time and I had no idea how bad the internet really is. All the ads and other stuff are unbearable to me.

pcr910303 7y ago

It’s not like Safari is blocking all ad blockers like Google Chrome did... its more of deprecating & removing APIs that can be abused to track users browsing history by disguising itself into a browser extension. Safari provides an alternative API that allows content blocking, that IMHO is better considering that * it doesn’t allow leaking browsing history * it runs in native code (not js like alternative ad blockers) so much fast In a way, Apple is doing this to protect user privacy.

saagarjha 7y ago
Apple is doing pretty much exactly the same thing Google is.
- pcr910303 7y ago
  Last time I checked, Google Chrome doesn’t offer an alternative API that allows efficient ad blocking. In contrast, Apple has introduced & provided the API for a few years, and popularized the idea of mobile win ad blockers. I can’t see how Apple is doing ‘pretty much the same as Google’. Can you clarify?
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Google is adding essentially the same thing with Manifestv3 and has been raked over the coals for it.