Apple Releases Support Document for Safari 17's Enhanced Incognito Browsing Mode with Privacy Features
TapTechNews July 18th news, Apple released a support document on July 16th, highlighting version 2.0 of Private Browsing, enhancing protection against cross-site tracking and fingerprinting, which will be enabled in the enhanced 'Incognito Browsing' mode of Safari 17.
Apple first introduced the 'Private Browsing' (Private Browsing) mode in 2005, allowing users to browse the web without leaving local traces.
Apple has continuously iterated the 'Private Browsing' mode in the past few years, gradually increasing the intensity of privacy protection, emphasizing that users should not be tracked without their knowledge or consent.
New Features/New Characteristics
TapTechNews attached the new features/new characteristics of the enhanced 'Incognito Browsing' mode protection of Safari 17.0 as follows:
Link tracking protection: Remove tracking information in the URL during navigation.
Block network loads from known trackers: Use data from DuckDuckGo and EasyPrivacy to block network requests to known trackers.
Advanced fingerprint protection: Add noise to various application programming interfaces to prevent fingerprinting.
Extension management: In the 'Incognito Browsing' mode, extensions with website or history access rights are defaulted to be off.
WebAdAttributionKit: Allows for privacy-protected advertising attribution.
Additional protection for all browsing modes:
Upper limit on cookie usage duration: Limit the lifespan of cookies from stealth third-party IP addresses.
Partitioned session storage and BlobURL: Isolate storage to prevent cross-site tracking.
Network privacy enhancement: Use encrypted DNS and proxy unencrypted HTTP requests.
Advanced fingerprint identification protection:
Safari has introduced several measures to combat fingerprinting:
Noise injection: Apply noise to 2D canvas, WebGL, and WebAudioAPI to mask unique device characteristics.
Fixed values of screen/window metrics: Standardize the values returned by application programming interfaces to reduce fingerprint entropy (fingerprinting entropy).
Advertising tracking technology
One notable point is the WebAdAttributionKit, which adds advertising tracking technology in the 'Incognito Browsing' mode and can collect data to track users.
Apple's WebKit team said:
We have also expanded the WebAdAttributionKit (formerly 'PrivateClickMeasurement') to replace tracking parameters in the URL to help developers understand the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, also applicable to the 'Incognito Browsing' mode.
In the subsequent explanation, Apple stated:
WebAdAttributionKit (formerly PrivateClickMeasurement) is a way for advertisers, websites, and application developers to implement advertising attribution and click measurement in a privacy-protecting manner. More information can be clicked here.
WebAdAttributionKit is a way that allows advertisers, websites, and application developers to implement advertising attribution and click measurement in a privacy-protecting way. This advertising measurement method is similar to the ' PrivacySandbox' in Google's Chromium and Chrome browsers, and the 'Privacy-PreservingAttribution' in Mozilla Firefox browsers, and will collect some data of users to share with the advertising network.