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Apple declined to implement 16 Web APIs in Safari due to privacy concerns

(www.zdnet.com)
428 points coronadisaster | 2 comments | 29 Jun 20 10:16 UTC | HN request time: 3.037s | source
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philistine ◴[29 Jun 20 13:03 UTC] No.23677180[source]▶
I’ve heard so many people complain on HN about Safari’s lack of support for APIs. Before now, we didn’t have a public justification why Apple refused to implement them. Now we know.

The price of a Safari user in the ad market is going down, and it’s exactly what should be happening. I’m very happy with Apple.

https://9to5mac.com/2019/12/09/apple-safari-privacy-feature-...

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the_gipsy ◴[29 Jun 20 19:46 UTC] No.23681749[source]▶
Native apps are much, much more privacy-invasive.

Apple forces you to use those. You have no choice, like on other platforms.

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1. Karupan ◴[29 Jun 20 23:35 UTC] No.23684752[source]▶
I agree, with a caveat - Apple can and does remove apps which are caught stealing data permanently. The App Store and Apple's policies act as a safeguard for users. As far as I know, there is no reliable way to do that for web apps.
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2. the_gipsy ◴[30 Jun 20 11:45 UTC] No.23689090[source]▶
Don't fool yourself, Apple will never remove killer apps, only small insignificant apps. Instagram for example "steals" way too much data than necessary, yet apple does not remove them. TikTok just got caught for some stuff - still there.

So they might catch some rogue apps, but far from reliable or trustworthy. They protect their platform image, nothing more.

With webapps at least I can take some measures like ad and tracking blocking myself. I don't have to give access to the system unless some case really warrants it.