Facebook Accuses Apple of ‘Browser Carve-Out’ on Tracking Prompts, Hoping No One Will Remember That Safari Is Heavily Biased Toward Privacy

Michael Simon, writing for Macworld:

Facebook complained that Apple’s app tracking transparency favors companies like Google because ATT “carves out browsers from the tracking prompts Apple requires for apps.” Wehner even went so far as to accuse Apple of ignoring the “policy discrepancy” because “Apple continues to take billions of dollars a year from Google Search ads.”

Glenn Fleishman:

Also amusing of Facebook to whine about a browser “carve out,” when Apple has put more anti-tracking elements into Safari than any other browser and effectively banned third-party cookies.

Exactly: websites you visit on iOS don’t trigger tracking prompts because the anti-tracking features are built in. Apple flat-out removed support for third-party cookies two years ago. When a website tries to set or read a third-party cookie, WebKit doesn’t prompt the user to ask their permission — it just doesn’t work.

Apple has also declined to add new APIs to WebKit that could be misused for fingerprinting, like Bluetooth access and battery stats.

★ Thursday, 3 February 2022