All adblockers can see your data, but by you saying "they" you are implying somehow the Adguard company is seeing your data, and have not seen any evidence of that.
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Best Content Blocker?
- Thread starter bgarrant
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I just installed Ka-Block to see what Safari Preferences display about the data security.
These content blockers have to be able to read (see) the data to be able to tell what to block. How would it work otherwise. I think what they are saying there is nothing is saved or transmitted, but the extension has to see the data.I just installed Ka-Block to see what Safari Preferences display about the data security.
This is not accurate. Ad-blockers that use (only) the official content-blocker API install a set of rules that tell Safari which objects should be blocked. Such blockers never see your actual traffic.
To block an object (in some cases including whole webpages and not only parts of the content) you have to identify it as per set of rules installed, i.e. read data. And that is what Weasel was talking about.
"Your browser may require AdBlock to ask for permission to "read and change all your data on the websites you visit." This sounds scarier than it is. All it means is that AdBlock needs to be able to:
- See every page you open so that it can work on any website you visit.
- Read the data on the web page to find the ads.
- Change the data on the page to block or hide the ads."
I don't think there is a huge difference among them. I have liked the Adguard extension because it allows whitelisting of sites and custom blocking rules. Also they have a staff member who has been fairly active here on the forum answering questions, and I have not seen anybody else do that.
That's not what was said. When using an ad blocker that only uses Apple's content blocker API (such as e.g. Wipr), only Safari sees the actual browsing data and does the blocking. The blocker only installs the rules, but does not see the data.
Other types of ad blockers can indeed see your entire browsing data and potentially collect it and use it for marketing or other purposes. This has happened in the past.
Apple's phrasing sounds "scary" for a reason.
Can you point to some documentation on this? I read Apple's dev info on content blockers and it hints at nothing like what you are saying.
If you think about it, how would an adblocker or content blocker know what to filter unless it looks over all the urls that makeup the display of a web page.
Without seeing source code on any of these blockers, we don't really know what they are doing, so there is a certain amount of trust involved.
https://developer.apple.com/library...onceptual/ExtensibilityPG/ContentBlocker.html
"In addition to blocking unwanted content, a Content Blocker extension protects privacy. For example, the extension doesn’t have access to users’ browsing activity and it can’t report activity to your app"
It's not that difficult to understand. The ad blocker describes what objects to block in a rule language specified by Apple (for example, a rule could state that all URLs that contain the string "tracker" should be blocked). Safari interprets the rules and does the actual filtering.
If you see something like "Wipr does not have permission to read or transmit content from any web pages" in Safari, you know that the ad blocker is not getting access to your data (this message is generated by Safari based on the permissions granted to the extension).
I think we might be arguing over semantics. I agree the content blocker can't do anything with your data, but what you are posting does not negate my earlier point. For the content blocker to work it has to parse the site urls, so in that way it can see your data.
I really don't know how else describe it. When using the content blocker API, *Safari* applies the rules and filters objects as it loads the web page. The extension never sees any of your data or where you are browsing. It only provides the filtering rules, but is not involved in the actual web browsing in any way. There is a significant difference compared to traditional ad blockers which insert themselves into the interpretation of the web page.
From the site you have linked, Apple's dev info:
"... The extension tailors your content by hiding elements, blocking loads, and stripping cookies from Safari requests..."
From Wipr's website you have mentioned as an example:
"...Wipr blocks all ads, trackers, EU cookie notices, and other annoyances, so you can focus on the content that matters to you. It works in Safari and all apps that use Safari to display web pages.
And how does that contradict anything said above?
Geez guys, I have written my own blocker using Apple's API (for iOS, but it's the same mechanism in MacOS). It is *not* possible for an extension using only the content blocker API to see what the user is doing. There is a reason why Apple introduced this API.
Can you explain more please? (I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this)
So the blocker is telling Safari to block the URL and does not parse any data at all, even the listed URLs?
Walk me through this a little more if you could.
Exactly.
Not sure what you mean by "listed URLs".
It's described well in Apple's developer page linked above if you read beyond just the first section.
Well, of course the blocker knows blacklisted URLs since that's part of the rules it provides to Safari. But again, when using only Apple's API it does not see if the user actually visits the blacklisted or any other URL, since it is not involved in the page loading process.
If you want to know more technical details, here's a video from the 2015 WWDC. The first 20 minutes or so are about content blockers:
https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015/511/
Coming back to the thread topic, personally I'm happy with Wipr for Safari (if you like it, I recommend to buy the iOS version to support the developer). If you want to be able to customize the filter rules, 1Blocker (on the Mac app store) allows you to do that and also uses the Apple content blocker API.