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I'm an iPhone user and I actually want an Android for privacy reasons. Safari on iOS is inferior to Firefox with uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger. Also Safari
by bad_user 6y ago
I'm an iPhone user and I actually want an Android for privacy reasons.
Safari on iOS is inferior to Firefox with uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger.
Also Safari might have content blockers (inferior, but better than nothing), however iOS apps don't open links in Safari but in their own web view. This is mostly a cultural thing, but due to Android's tighter integration (eg back button) Android apps at least admit opening in the external browser as an option.
Example of apps that can open links on the external default browser on Android, but not on iOS: Facebook, Twitter, Gmail.
Android also supports web push notifications, making it possible to use some services from the browser, which is a far better sandbox. Firefox supports creating web app shortcuts, running full screen and with notifications, but with uBlock Origin powered content blocking in the background.
Why is this important? Have you seen the apps that share data with Facebook about you via their SDK? Go ahead, you might have a revelation about how privacy friendly your iOS device actually is:
https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity
I could avoid this crap on Android, but I can't on iOS unless I block the Facebook.com domain entirely at the DNS level, which I did, but it's not very practical if I'd need Facebook too.
iOS has some pretty cool privacy features, but it is also defective by design and this keeps it from being a good option for protecting the privacy of power users.
- scarface74 6y agoAlso Safari might have content blockers (inferior, but better than nothing), however iOS apps don't open links in Safari but in their own web view. This is mostly a cultural thing, but due to Android's tighter integration (eg back button) Android apps at least admit opening in the external browser as an option. There are two types of web views in IOS. One is an out of process web view where the app has very little visibility in what you do while you are using it. This view does support installed content blockers. Feedly for instance supports this web view. The other is an in process web view where the app has far more control and visibility. But doesn’t support content blockers. I use the Facebook website for just that reason instead of the app.