Apple is warning their nearly two billion iPhone users to immediately delete another tech giant’s app, claiming that your digital privacy is in grave danger.
Without mentioning the company’s name, Apple appeared to tell its users to dump Google’s Chrome internet browser in a video posted on YouTube.
The veiled shot is gaining renewed attention after Google announced on Tuesday that they are backtracking on a promise to remove third-party tracking cookies from Chrome.
These cookies let websites and advertisers track Chrome users’ online activity in order to show them personalized ads – and also creates a multi-billion-dollar revenue stream for Google.
Google previously planned to replace cookies with a new system, giving Chrome users a one-click ‘don’t track me’ option, but those plans fell apart due to widespread fear from the online advertising industry that any replacement would leave less room for online ad rivals.
While tracking cookies themselves are not necessarily malicious, they can lead to privacy risks and, in certain cases, increase the chances of your data being leaked or stolen – including sensitive information like bank records.
This means everything iPhone owners who use Chrome do will continue to be tracked unless they manually clear cookies or use the browser’s Incognito Mode.
Apple has used the controversy to promote their own internet browser, Safari, which promised to be ‘a browser that’s actually private.’
Apple has used the controversy to promote their own internet browser, Safari, which promised to be ‘a browser that’s actually private.’
In a YouTube video that’s been viewed 19 million times, Apple claimed that iPhone users’ privacy wasn’t secure unless they switched to their Safari internet browser
Paying homage to the 1963 film ‘The Birds,’ iPhone users are followed around by flying surveillance cameras spying on their online browsing habits
In Apple’s anti-tracking video entitled ‘Flock,’ iPhone users try to escape from an endless onslaught of surveillance cameras – which finally explode when the user chooses Safari as their private browser.
It would seem to be a direct shot at Google, who called their original tracking cookie replacement plan FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts).
Although Apple promotes that Safari has stronger privacy features like blocking third-party trackers by default, it’s not the only browser iPhone users can switch to.
Third-party cookies on Chrome track a user’s activity across several websites, noting what you like to buy, what sites you frequently visit, and what you type into your searches.
All this information can create a detailed biography of a Chrome user, including their age, location, and general interests.
Although cookies don’t specifically store private information about a user’s bank accounts, they could capture certain details like what bank you’re using, when you visited the bank’s website, and how long you were online.
All of this data collected while you’re using Chrome on an iPhone is shared or sold to ad agencies, analytics firms, and data brokers – organizations that make money by collecting and studying your personal data and then licensing it out for marketing purposes.
Google uses this data to power its advertising revenue stream, which brought in approximately $265 billion in 2024, according to company earnings statements.
Apple’s Safari is one of many internet browsers that claims to block third-party tracking cookies by default
Google’s decision comes months after a study estimated that the company would lose nearly 20 percent of its annual advertising revenue by changing its current third-party cookie policy
However, a 2024 study by Google found that its Privacy Sandbox initiative – which would carry out the company’s promise to reduce user tracking and improve privacy – would also lead to an advertising revenue drop of roughly 19 percent.
On April 22, Anthony Chavez, the VP for Google’s Privacy Sandbox announced that Google ‘made the decision to maintain our current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome, and will not be rolling out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies.’
Unfortunately for Chrome users, not all third parties have the greatest digital security.
If hackers were able to break into an ad network buying data from Google, your digital profile could be stolen, including your private search history, personal information, and banking details.
Firefox, developed by the non-profit Mozilla, promotes privacy with an ‘Enhanced Tracking Protection’ feature – which also blocks third-party tracking cookies by default.
DuckDuckGo includes automatic cookie consent management for popups and uses its ‘Duck Player’ for playing YouTube videos without Google ads.
The Avast Secure browser also advertises that it has built-in ad blocking, anti-phishing features, and a password manager, but this iPhone-compatible browser will cost users $5.99 per month.
In 2024, a Google spokesperson told DailyMail.com that the company strives to keep people’s ‘data safe by default and ensuring users can control when and how their data is used in Chrome to personalize their web browsing experience.’
‘We believe users should always be in control, which is why we’ve built easy to use privacy and security settings directly into Chrome,’ the spokesperson added.