Advertisers Up In Arms Over Safari’s Smarter Cookie Blocking Feature

It seems that Apple can’t seem to launch new features for its products without courting some kind of controversy. For example while Face ID might seem like a new and exciting way for users to protect their phones against unauthorized access, law enforcement officials have expressed their displeasure over it.

This is why it doesn’t really come as a surprise to learn that advertisers aren’t too thrilled about a Safari feature in the upcoming iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra updates. In a report from AdWeek, advertising organizations, such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau, American Advertising Federation, the Association of National Advertisers, the 4A’s and a couple of others have expressed their “concern” with Safari’s smarter cookie blocking feature, which they claim will “sabotage” the economic model of the internet.

For those unfamiliar, a Safari feature part of iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra is a feature called “Intelligent Tracking Prevention”, which basically tries to limit how advertisers and websites can track users across the internet, meaning that this feature has the potential to put an end to those creepy ads that you see across the internet that somehow knows what you have searched for in the past.

In an open letter to Apple obtained by AdWeek, the organizations say, “Blocking cookies in this manner will drive a wedge between brands and their customers, and it will make advertising more generic and less timely and useful. Put simply, machine-driven cookie choices do not represent user choice; they represent browser-manufacturer choice.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones, Computers, General
Tags: iOS, macOS, Privacy, safari, _cold