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Apple has paved the way for iPhone users to block online advertising shown in its Safari web browser, in an attempt to improve privacy that could prevent web publishers from reaching some of their most valuable customers.
Changes planned for iOS 9, the operating system that will be pushed out later this year, include “Content Blocking Safari Extensions”, according to documents shared with app makers this week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
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“Content blocking gives your extensions a fast and efficient way to block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups and other content,” Apple says in documentation for developers.
Apple believes that privacy and security are among its greatest differentiators against Google’s Android mobile platform, which as the main rival to iOS runs on more than three-quarters of all smartphones sold. Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, last week declared his belief in a “fundamental right to privacy” in a barnstorming speech in Washington DC.
Over a video link from Silicon Valley, he told an audience at an event organised by privacy research group Epic that many tech companies were “gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monitise it. We think that’s wrong.”
Nonetheless, the move to enable ad-blocking on iPhones has caused concern among some in the media industry, as Apple customers are widely seen as a wealthier demographic desirable to advertisers.
Joshua Benton, director of Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab, called it a “worrisome” development. “For the many news companies counting on mobile advertising for their business model, I don’t see a way that this change doesn’t shave off a real slice of mobile advertising revenue,” he wrote in a blogpost on Wednesday.
Ad-blocking has been available on the Mac version of Safari for several years, but if taken up by developers the tool would mean users can choose to install an app that would block online advertising and the tools used to target it on the iPhone’s browser for the first time.
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The planned update comes as Apple tries to re-establish its place at the at the heart of the media and entertainment industry with the launch of Music, an all-in-one subscription streaming and radio app, and News, a slick magazine-style app showing a range of free content from publishers that will compete with the likes of Flipboard and Facebook’s Instant Stories.
Apple’s News app will allow publishers to sell their own advertising or split revenues when using its own iAd tool.
A growing number of people use ad-blocking tools to view websites undisturbed by banners, pop-ups and other flashy graphics that they believe distract from editorial content. A study by Adobe and PageFair last year reported 70 per cent growth in usage of ad-blockers to an estimated 140m people.
Last month, it emerged that several European mobile operators plan to block advertising delivered over their networks as early as this year.
Some online advertising companies, including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, have paid Eyeo, the company behind popular tool Adblock Plus, to ensure their ads appear on a whitelist of “acceptable” ads that are not blocked.
However, in a blogpost about the planned changes in iOS 9, Sebastian Noack of Adblock Plus said that it was unclear whether Apple’s extension would help or hinder its technology.
Apple has paved the way for iPhone users to block online advertising shown in its Safari web browser, in an attempt to improve privacy that could prevent web publishers from reaching some of their most valuable customers.
Changes planned for iOS 9, the operating system that will be pushed out later this year, include “Content Blocking Safari Extensions”, according to documents shared with app makers this week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
“Content blocking gives your extensions a fast and efficient way to block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups and other content,” Apple says in documentation for developers.
Apple believes that privacy and security are among its greatest differentiators against Google’s Android mobile platform, which as the main rival to iOS runs on more than three-quarters of all smartphones sold. Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, last week declared his belief in a “fundamental right to privacy” in a barnstorming speech in Washington DC.
Over a video link from Silicon Valley, he told an audience at an event organised by privacy research group Epic that many tech companies were “gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monitise it. We think that’s wrong.”
Nonetheless, the move to enable ad-blocking on iPhones has caused concern among some in the media industry, as Apple customers are widely seen as a wealthier demographic desirable to advertisers.
Joshua Benton, director of Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab, called it a “worrisome” development. “For the many news companies counting on mobile advertising for their business model, I don’t see a way that this change doesn’t shave off a real slice of mobile advertising revenue,” he wrote in a blogpost on Wednesday.
Ad-blocking has been available on the Mac version of Safari for several years, but if taken up by developers the tool would mean users can choose to install an app that would block online advertising and the tools used to target it on the iPhone’s browser for the first time.
The planned update comes as Apple tries to re-establish its place at the at the heart of the media and entertainment industry with the launch of Music, an all-in-one subscription streaming and radio app, and News, a slick magazine-style app showing a range of free content from publishers that will compete with the likes of Flipboard and Facebook’s Instant Stories.
Apple’s News app will allow publishers to sell their own advertising or split revenues when using its own iAd tool.
A growing number of people use ad-blocking tools to view websites undisturbed by banners, pop-ups and other flashy graphics that they believe distract from editorial content. A study by Adobe and PageFair last year reported 70 per cent growth in usage of ad-blockers to an estimated 140m people.
Last month, it emerged that several European mobile operators plan to block advertising delivered over their networks as early as this year.
Some online advertising companies, including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, have paid Eyeo, the company behind popular tool Adblock Plus, to ensure their ads appear on a whitelist of “acceptable” ads that are not blocked.
However, in a blogpost about the planned changes in iOS 9, Sebastian Noack of Adblock Plus said that it was unclear whether Apple’s extension would help or hinder its technology.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b9bf535c-0fc7-11e5-94d1-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3cjzdhxQQ
“The best case is that the new API will help us to improve the performance and adblocking experience on Safari, and paves the way for an iOS adblocker,” Mr Noack wrote. “Or it will force us to rely upon an inferior blocking format that would essentially kill adblocking on Safari.”
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