Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Apple managed to decimate ad blockers on Safari with little backlash

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Apple has quietly managed to disable uBlock Origin and numerous other extensions while consolidating all Safari add-ons in its App Store. What this means is that Safari users no longer have an effective way to block web advertising. It was part of an overall plan to eliminate user-designed Javascript extensions in Safari. Google has indicated a desire to do the same with Chrome with depreciations to the  webRequest API. The move also reflects a debate on which style of adblock lists to use, with the newer version now used by Safari (and presumably in the works for Chrome) blocking at the domain level only, rendering ineffective against (for example) Facebook advertisements. More on Reddit.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 25, 2024 08:34 a.m.

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