Apple takes important steps on privacy!

Apple introduced iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma with the WWDC 23 event it held the other day. The company, which takes steps in user security with each new operating system, will continue to do so in its new generation systems. The new system that the company will bring to the Mail, Message and Safari application is proof of this.

Safari will now better protect your personal data

iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma welcome a feature that gives users more privacy while surfing the web. The new ‘Link Tracking Protection’ is a new feature that is automatically enabled in Mail, Messages and Safari in incognito mode.

Link Tracking Protection will automatically kick in in incognito mode, detecting user-defined tracking parameters in URLs and automatically removing them. Users will thus protect their personal data collected by advertisers and analytics companies.

Advertisers and analytics companies can track user activity on their websites by adding tracking parameters to links. By simply adding a tracking identifier to the end of the page URL, instead of storing third-party cookies, it circumvents the standard anti-tracking systems of apps like Safari that block cross-site cookies and other session storage methods.

With this year, Apple aims to protect its users from such situations. With the new update, Safari will automatically detect which parts of the URL are descriptive and remove only those parts from the URL. Thus, your personal data will be protected while browsing the web page you want to visit as you wish.

Safari app can do this automatically when in incognito mode. Apple, on the other hand, shares aggregated data with these companies to allow advertisers to track ad campaign conversion metrics, but individuals’ own data remains private.

Apple is taking another important step in privacy with the new update. So what do you think about this privacy feature offered on Apple and Safari applications?