The latest version of Apple’s macOS contains an updated version of the Safari browser that prevents trackers, including Google Analytics, from collecting user data.
The new version of macOS, called “Big Sur,” was announced this week at Apple’s World Developers Conference (WWDC). During the announcement, Apple previewed Safari’s new privacy reporting feature.
The Safari privacy report will list all of the browsers blocked by the browser on the website that a user is currently visiting.
If you weren’t looking closely, you may have missed it, but Apple specifically shows that Google Analytics is blocked by Safari.
Here is a screenshot from a press release Apple released yesterday:
As you can see, the new version of Safari blocks other popular trackers like DoubleClick, Amazon and Optimizely.
Apple is promoting the privacy features of Safari as a major selling point for the new browser.
“Privacy has always been integrated into Safari, and a new Privacy Report offers additional visibility into how Safari protects web browsing activity.
Users can choose when and with what websites a Safari extension can work, and tools like data breach password monitoring never reveal their password information, not even to Apple. “
Apple will even allow macOS Big Sur users to add a privacy report widget to their desktop for easy access at any time.
The privacy report widget contains a complete list of all trackers blocked in the last seven days.
What does this mean for sellers?
This change means potential bad news for sellers and site owners, especially if a significant number of their visitors use the Safari browser.
However, losing data is never a good thing, regardless of how much audience a site uses Safari.
It’s a particularly valuable dataset when it comes to analyzing how Mac users interact with a website compared to users of other operating systems.
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The silver lining is that this update only reaches the desktop version of Safari, which has less than half of the market share of Mobile Safari.
Related: Safari announces complete blocking of third-party cookies
Safari Market Share – Desktop versus mobile
As of May 2020, Safari has 9.4% of the market share of the desktop browser worldwide.
That number is slightly higher when looking at data from the United States where Safari owns 15.6% of the desktop computer market.
Far fewer people use Safari than Chrome, but Safari’s market share is by no means insignificant. It remains the second most popular desktop web browser.
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However, this Safari update would have a much greater impact if implemented in the mobile browser, as Mobile Safari has a market share of 24.4% worldwide.
That number is more than double in the United States, where Safari is currently the most popular mobile web browser with a whopping 55% market share.
Blocking Google Analytics in Mobile Safari would be a huge hit for vendor data, but let’s not worry about that until we have to.
What does this mean for advertising?
Apple has been moving toward a more private browsing experience long before its last announcement.
The company’s efforts to block trackers thus far have resulted in a 60% decrease in the prices of Safari targeted ads.
As Apple expands its crawler blocking capabilities in Safari, the ads will become even more difficult to target, likely to further reduce the price.
While that may benefit ad buyers, lower ad prices mean less money earned by the websites that serve those ads.
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Not to mention, blocking trackers makes it difficult for advertisers to reach their target audience.
Time will tell to what extent this change affects sellers.
There is no set release date for macOS Big Sur, but major Apple OS updates will generally roll out in the fall.
Source: apple
