Apple is taking shots at Google in a very public way
When it comes to mobile browsers, there are only two that matter: Chrome and Safari have 90% market share between them. So when Apple makes jabs at alternative browsers aimed at iPhone users, it makes those jabs at Google and Google alone.
That’s the context behind Apple’s latest hometown privacy trick. As reported by SFGate, “Apple has replaced one of its most famous billboards in San Francisco with a new ad campaign, and it appears to include a dig at a Bay Area tech rival.”
When Apple says that Safari is “a browser that’s actually private,” it’s issuing a very stark warning about its rival, the only other mobile browser of any significance.
The warning itself isn’t a surprise – let’s be clear, if privacy is your priority, you’re highly unlikely to use Google Chrome by default. In its normal mode, the tracking cookies prove to have cockroach-like survival skills, while in its quasi-private “incognito mode” it remains unclear how incognito it really is.
As ESET’s Jake Moore explains, “Google revealed earlier this year that it collects your data if you use Google Chrome, even if you use incognito mode.” Personal data is so valuable to companies, and when the terms and conditions are so difficult to understand, it can be easy for consumers to simply let companies collect data as they wish.
“There’s no direct reference to Google, of course,” SFGate says of the new billboard, “but it’s impossible not to read the ad as anything but a gauntlet against the Mountain View tech giant and its popular Chrome browser.”
Chrome’s tracking cookies will be here until at least early 2025. Recent reports suggest that some form of AI searching of users’ search history may follow, along with the so-called Privacy Sandbox – which is the experience of Google to replace tracking cookies with something less terrible, though its goals remain the same.
On the other hand, Chrome is an excellent browser – fast, versatile and constantly updated with new options. Not surprisingly, it has nearly 3 billion users. But it has a complex engine underlying its front end, and it’s been subject to high-profile, exploited vulnerabilities far beyond anything we’ve seen in Apple’s Safari in recent years. Last month, four Chrome zero days were confirmed, and this month browser extensions were attacked for reported risks.
In reality, Google is in some trouble. Safari is a browser, while Chrome is an interface for Google’s trillion dollar marketing machine. It cannot turn off tracking by default without an alternative that looks for tracking in different ways. Not only will this kill his own golden goose, but it will also cause a stir in the wider industry. Just look at the current back-and-forth about opting out of tracking cookies.
Safari isn’t perfect, but it was designed with a different mindset. “Safari can also track user activity, but it offers better settings to protect users and their identities,” says Moore. It doesn’t have all the baggage to contend with and can go up against smaller rivals like Firefox and Brave that insist on privacy as a USP.
This compromise between Chrome and Safari is complicated, of course, by Google providing the iPhone’s default search slot. But searching in Safari is a much more personal experience than using the same search technology in Chrome.
Unless there are very specific reasons to use Chrome, iPhone users should really default to Safari. It’s pretty private by default, and its privacy mode is much better than Chrome’s — it even deletes traces between tabs, within sessions, unlike Chrome.
“If you have an Incognito window open and open another one,” Google explains, “your private browsing session will continue in the new window. To exit incognito mode, close all windows in that mode.” Compare this to Safari. “Browsing initiated in one tab is isolated from browsing initiated in another tab,” Apple says, “so the websites you visit can’t track your browsing across multiple sessions.”
And this little detail clearly sums up the difference. It’s an Apple philosophy more than anything else. While Apple’s California billboard may seem trivial, there’s a lot behind it.
