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Ask HN: Why hasn’t Apple created an ad-blocker in the system level for iOS?

I think if Apple created an ad-blocker like the legendary u-blockOrigin for iOS, their brand will be strengthen, and subscription service more in demand. Imagine you use your iPhone and will not ever see any ad regardless of the app you use? Sure, most apps will go away because without ads, no one would pay for them, but are these apps really important for you anyway? I think the $99 they make from app developers will be less compared to thousands of apps that are high quality and subscription-based that will giving Apple a cut every month. So, why hasn’t Apple created a system level adblocker that is baked in to the boot loader for the iOS, and make it virtually impossible for any advertising company like Google or FB to circumvent it? Google has Android, but Facebook literally can’t survive without selling ads, so if Apple created a system-level ad-blocker where in every video and every text, the OS itself filters out and blocks ads, Facebook would be in big trouble since they don’t have their own hardware (hardware that people care about and use, that is).

bhaney 3y ago
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-is-an-ad-company-now/ https://www.wired.com/story/apple-is-an-ad-company-now/
- tonyarkles 3y ago
  https://fourweekmba.com/apple-revenue-breakdown/#:~:text=Apple%20generated%20over%20%24394%20billion,from%20iPad%20sales%2C%20and%20%2478.13 https://fourweekmba.com/apple-revenue-breakdown/#:~:text=App... From what I can tell, that’s $4B in Ad revenue and $394B total revenue. Definitely not anywhere near the ratio that other major tech companies have.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
brunes 3y ago
Because Apple makes a shitton of money selling ads on iOS using its Ad ID. Wait, did you seriously buy into their marketing BS about how they care about your privacy? Apple cares about making money, and that's it. They hamstrung Google and Meta on iOS simply so they would have a monopoly on advertising trackers on the platform.
- austinpena 3y ago
  How does Apple make money with this exactly?
  - refulgentis 3y ago
    They collect your data and sell ads to advertisers based on segments you fall into
    - soupfordummies 3y ago
      What data do they collect? Where/how do they collect it? Are they mining my camera roll and notes or just my browser history? What about my text messages?
      - gmerc 3y ago
        You don’t remember being asked to opt in? Oh wait that’s because they created that rule for others Go Settings -> Privacy -> Ads >>You may still be served ads based on the criteria listed below. Your personal data is not provided to third parties. Contextual Information On the App Store, relevant ads may be selected using your search query, information about the page you're viewing, or the app you're downloading. On Apple News and Stocks, the type of story you read may be used to select relevant ads. In addition, information about your device’s keyboard language settings, device type, OS version, mobile carrier, and connection type may be used to serve ads to you. If Location Services is enabled and you’ve granted permission to App Store, Apple News, or the Apple TV app to access your location, your location may be used to serve you geographically relevant ads in each respective app.
        kaba0 3y ago
        So basically absolutely nothing..
        refulgentis 3y ago
lapcat 3y ago
Duopoly collusion. Google's search deal with Apple is worth $billions per year. Google gives Apple cut of Chrome iOS search revenue https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/17/google_apple_chrome_ios_revenue/ https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/17/google_apple_chrome_i...
- klysm 3y ago
  I don’t understand how things like this are legal
  - tuMvEuBFOO 3y ago
    $
- lockhouse 3y ago
  Google has a similar search deal with Mozilla and Samsung.
dave4420 3y ago
If they wanted to prevent apps from showing ads on iOS, they’d change the App Store rules to ban it. There’d be an exodus of apps. Followed by an exodus of users who couldn’t live without IG/FB/TikTok/Snapchat/Twitter/Reddit/etc.
- Euphorbium 3y ago
  They would be free to move to android. But we all know they wont. I wish it would happen.
  - drewbeck 3y ago
    If every popular app left iOS then yes I think you’d see a max exodus to android.
  - zshrc 3y ago
    Like the ad situation is any better there. Googles mining you just as hard, maybe even more so.
    - kaba0 3y ago
      One uses the actual search term and some vague user data like which country you are from to display ads in the goddamn AppStore and you compare it to a company that was built from solely ad money and are thinking about apple >= google or > ? It’s <<<<.
oneplane 3y ago
It's probably legally infeasible, as well as bad for Apple's own advertisement business. They also can't make different rules for the same legal reasons.
tick_tock_tick 3y ago
Apple is becoming an ad company it's why they made moves against Facebook.
detourdog 3y ago
A functioning society should be able to contain Ads and a right to privacy. I don’t think Apple wanted the privacy stance it developed. The stance developed as a reaction to what some companies saw as fair behavior to the unsuspecting.
orasis 3y ago
Since Apple controls the App Store they would likely be sued into oblivion.
crazygringo 3y ago
Because Apple is not and never had been anti-advertising. They've been promoting privacy but that's different. And they run an entire ad platform in iOS. Why would they kill that entire line of business? And for Apple, it's good to have lots of apps that can monetize themselves through advertising when they can't do it through purchases. Blocking ads would drive away a huge number of useful apps.
freitzkriesler2 3y ago
They sell their own form of ads IIRC. But if the relationship between Google and apple soured, this would be a good FU apple could implement. Microsoft could do this too but I guess the data is worth more than the customer gratitude.
tebruno99 3y ago
That would be pretty anti-competitive of them given they would have to unblock their own ads to make money
klysm 3y ago
Apple makes money off ads. An organization this large simply cannot say no to a revenue stream that large
spondylosaurus 3y ago
> Insider Intelligence, a market research firm, estimates that Apple brings in $4 billion a year from ads. https://www.wired.com/story/apple-is-an-ad-company-now/ https://www.wired.com/story/apple-is-an-ad-company-now/
Saphyel 3y ago
How do you think Apple got the 3 trillion?? Spoiler: it's not because privacy or moral that they sell on their marketing. it's because of the lack of those.
tzs 3y ago
> so if Apple created a system-level ad-blocker where in every video and every text, the OS itself filters out and blocks ads I don't think this is technically feasible with current technology unless they limited phones to only displaying curated content.
jitl 3y ago
Apple allows content blockers in Safari but not in apps because in part this encourages developers to build a native app to ensure ad revenue.
DueDilligence 3y ago
[dead]

bhaney 3y ago

https://www.wired.com/story/apple-is-an-ad-company-now/ https://www.wired.com/story/apple-is-an-ad-company-now/

tonyarkles 3y ago
https://fourweekmba.com/apple-revenue-breakdown/#:~:text=Apple%20generated%20over%20%24394%20billion,from%20iPad%20sales%2C%20and%20%2478.13 https://fourweekmba.com/apple-revenue-breakdown/#:~:text=App... From what I can tell, that’s $4B in Ad revenue and $394B total revenue. Definitely not anywhere near the ratio that other major tech companies have.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

brunes 3y ago

Because Apple makes a shitton of money selling ads on iOS using its Ad ID. Wait, did you seriously buy into their marketing BS about how they care about your privacy? Apple cares about making money, and that's it. They hamstrung Google and Meta on iOS simply so they would have a monopoly on advertising trackers on the platform.

austinpena 3y ago
How does Apple make money with this exactly?
- refulgentis 3y ago
  They collect your data and sell ads to advertisers based on segments you fall into
  - soupfordummies 3y ago
    What data do they collect? Where/how do they collect it? Are they mining my camera roll and notes or just my browser history? What about my text messages?
    - gmerc 3y ago
      You don’t remember being asked to opt in? Oh wait that’s because they created that rule for others Go Settings -> Privacy -> Ads >>You may still be served ads based on the criteria listed below. Your personal data is not provided to third parties. Contextual Information On the App Store, relevant ads may be selected using your search query, information about the page you're viewing, or the app you're downloading. On Apple News and Stocks, the type of story you read may be used to select relevant ads. In addition, information about your device’s keyboard language settings, device type, OS version, mobile carrier, and connection type may be used to serve ads to you. If Location Services is enabled and you’ve granted permission to App Store, Apple News, or the Apple TV app to access your location, your location may be used to serve you geographically relevant ads in each respective app.
      - kaba0 3y ago
        So basically absolutely nothing..
        refulgentis 3y ago

lapcat 3y ago

Duopoly collusion. Google's search deal with Apple is worth $billions per year. Google gives Apple cut of Chrome iOS search revenue https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/17/google_apple_chrome_ios_revenue/ https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/17/google_apple_chrome_i...

klysm 3y ago
I don’t understand how things like this are legal
- tuMvEuBFOO 3y ago
  $
lockhouse 3y ago
Google has a similar search deal with Mozilla and Samsung.

dave4420 3y ago

If they wanted to prevent apps from showing ads on iOS, they’d change the App Store rules to ban it. There’d be an exodus of apps. Followed by an exodus of users who couldn’t live without IG/FB/TikTok/Snapchat/Twitter/Reddit/etc.

Euphorbium 3y ago
They would be free to move to android. But we all know they wont. I wish it would happen.
- drewbeck 3y ago
  If every popular app left iOS then yes I think you’d see a max exodus to android.
- zshrc 3y ago
  Like the ad situation is any better there. Googles mining you just as hard, maybe even more so.
  - kaba0 3y ago
    One uses the actual search term and some vague user data like which country you are from to display ads in the goddamn AppStore and you compare it to a company that was built from solely ad money and are thinking about apple >= google or > ? It’s <<<<.

oneplane 3y ago

It's probably legally infeasible, as well as bad for Apple's own advertisement business. They also can't make different rules for the same legal reasons.

tick_tock_tick 3y ago

Apple is becoming an ad company it's why they made moves against Facebook.

detourdog 3y ago

A functioning society should be able to contain Ads and a right to privacy. I don’t think Apple wanted the privacy stance it developed. The stance developed as a reaction to what some companies saw as fair behavior to the unsuspecting.

orasis 3y ago

Since Apple controls the App Store they would likely be sued into oblivion.

crazygringo 3y ago

Because Apple is not and never had been anti-advertising. They've been promoting privacy but that's different. And they run an entire ad platform in iOS. Why would they kill that entire line of business? And for Apple, it's good to have lots of apps that can monetize themselves through advertising when they can't do it through purchases. Blocking ads would drive away a huge number of useful apps.

freitzkriesler2 3y ago

They sell their own form of ads IIRC. But if the relationship between Google and apple soured, this would be a good FU apple could implement. Microsoft could do this too but I guess the data is worth more than the customer gratitude.

tebruno99 3y ago

That would be pretty anti-competitive of them given they would have to unblock their own ads to make money

klysm 3y ago

Apple makes money off ads. An organization this large simply cannot say no to a revenue stream that large

spondylosaurus 3y ago

> Insider Intelligence, a market research firm, estimates that Apple brings in $4 billion a year from ads. https://www.wired.com/story/apple-is-an-ad-company-now/ https://www.wired.com/story/apple-is-an-ad-company-now/

Saphyel 3y ago

How do you think Apple got the 3 trillion?? Spoiler: it's not because privacy or moral that they sell on their marketing. it's because of the lack of those.

tzs 3y ago

> so if Apple created a system-level ad-blocker where in every video and every text, the OS itself filters out and blocks ads I don't think this is technically feasible with current technology unless they limited phones to only displaying curated content.

jitl 3y ago

Apple allows content blockers in Safari but not in apps because in part this encourages developers to build a native app to ensure ad revenue.

DueDilligence 3y ago

[dead]