Apple’s video warning for iPhone users to stop using Google Chrome doesn’t mention Google Chrome — it doesn’t need to. It plays on the browser’s reputation for tracking and privacy infractions, which just took another hit. But it also hides a clever message that makes its warning clear. Hundreds of millions of iPhone users need to take note.
Last summer, Google backtracked on its promise to kill tracking cookies for Chrome’s 3 billion users. Don’t worry, it said, it’s temporary. It proposed a one-click “don’t track me” for Chrome with parallels to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency. But it has now backtracked again — and this time it’s worse. Cookies are here to stay. “We’ve 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.”
The hidden message in Apple’s videos, which mimicked Hitchcock’s The Birds to show trackers spying on browser users, wasn’t really all that hidden. Apple’s video was titled Flock, and FLoC was Google’s initial tracking cookie replacement plan. “Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC),” Google explained, is a new way for advertisers and sites to show relevant ads without tracking individuals across the web.”
FLoC didn’t survive regulatory scrutiny or ad industry pressure on Google to assure that it wasn’t benefiting at their expense by killing cookies. And all other options suggested since have suffered the same fate. The one-click opt-out being just the latest. Google’s Privacy Sandbox has become a Privacy Sandpit in which all these ideas are buried.
Google’s reported intention is to switch around 300 million iPhone users from Apple’s apps to its own when it comes to search. That means quitting Safari for Chrome. It now has between 30% — around 400 million — iPhone users, but needs more. This is now critical with the longstanding Apple-Google search arrangement at risk. So what do all those existing and potentially new users do now as regards tracking?
If you use Chrome on Android you can disable tracking cookies. You can find details on how to do so here. But in the Chrome app on your iPhone, “cookies are automatically turned on and stay on.” You do have the option to “clear cookies.” But “if you remove cookies, you’ll be signed out of websites and your saved preferences could be deleted.”
At the moment there is no “third-party cookie choice in Chrome” on your iPhone, per Google’s post this week. VPNMentor warns that “Google sells advertising data and has a lot more incentives to track you. Personalized ads are automatically enabled on Chrome.” You have the option to use Chrome’s Incognito Mode, which is not as good as Safari’s but is better than Chrome’s normal browsing from a privacy perspective. But this comes with trade-offs, and will be painful to use as a default.
As such, Google’s news this week affects Apple users more than PC or Android users, given more limited user controls over Chrome. This plays into Apple’s heavy promotion of Safari’s privacy last year in the wake of Google’s last cookie reversal. Chrome remains the world’s most popular browser, but given these restrictions, the advice for iPhone users to opt for Safari is arguably simpler until Chrome’s settings change.
If you do use Chrome on your iPhone, ensure “Allow Cross-Website Tracking” is disabled within Settings—Apps—Chrome. This isn’t as effective as the browser-based total block on tracking cookies you get with Safari, which is why Google’s proposed removal of all tracking cookies within Chrome was the right answer.
