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Apple Initiative Threatens Big Tech Business Model

News. Apple’s privacy-by-default feature, Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) in the newest version of the Safari browser will cost the ad tech business millions of dollars. One of the big players is downsizing its estimations of revenue by 22%, according to a Guardian news story.

Apple sits on 15% of the global browser market, and having introduced the ITP feature, which in all main stream browsers is not installed by default, last September will have an groundbreaking effect on the tracking industry. While privacy advocats hail the development, the industry calls sabotage.

Google will also introduce a built-in-adblocker in Chrome, holding 55% of the market, but Google will only block what Google and the ad tech industry believe are intrusive ads.

Built-in-blockers or not, the best solution is always to install third-party blocking. Two very good blockers are Disconnect and Ghostery available for most browsers.

The down-size of the adblocking popularity (over 40% internet users do it now) is that the tracking industry will find new and more sophisticated ways of tracking users, e.g. via the phones microphone.