Apple has released the latest version of its macOS High Sierra with which it brings some key updates to the Safari browser. The new update also includes the ability to disable cross-site cookie tracking and turn off autoplaying ads. Arriving alongside those features is a less publicized new addition to Apple’s proprietary browser: data collection.
The Cupertino giant is using its newly implemented differential privacy technology to gather information from user habits which will help it to identify problematic websites.
This form of data collection is the first of its kind for Safari and aimed at identifying sites which uses excessive power and crashes the browser by monopolizing way too much memory. Apple is also documenting the popularity of the domains with these problems, so as to prioritize which sites to address first.
As SVP Craig Federighi put it in a WWDC keynote, “[O]ne of the important tools in making software more intelligent is to spot patterns in how multiple users are using their devices.”
Apple has already utilised the differential privacy for low-level applications, which includes predictive text in keyboards, emoji usage and search predictions. As such, the technology is already part of the company’s Device Analytics program.
This is an opt-in box that you can choose to tick, depending on whether you want to send that information to Apple, much like you would with the company’s crash reporting. As such, Apple won’t be prompting users with an additional sign up or notification marking the new data collection in Safari.
