This video about Apple Safari privacy is funny, creepy, and also true
It’s no secret that tracking is a common occurrence on the web, whether it’s on a desktop or a quick search on your phone. To highlight both the privacy concerns and a browser that aims to crush trackers—or, more accurately, detonate flying security cameras—Apple is rolling out a new campaign touting the privacy credentials of Safari.
The campaign, which debuts today as a short film and placements designed for desktop and mobile, aims to highlight the benefits of using Safari over Google Chrome or another browser. It follows everyday people as they surf the web for all sorts of reasons, with flying security cameras following them around and, frankly, scaring them.
Apple wants to remind people about the privacy protections built into Safari. It was the first web browser to introduce a “Private Browsing” experience in 2005, and it’s since been beefed up, now behind Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode. Safari also blocks cross-site tracking, removes unnecessary trackers from links and hides location data.
Apple takes it a step further and uses machine learning to determine which sites might be tracking you through a feature called Intelligent Tracking Prevention. When Safari detects a site tracking you, generally in the same way it would a cookie, Safari stops it and deletes the tracker.
You can see it working in real time in the Safari Privacy Report on your device, which shows you sites by number of trackers, top sites, and number of sites blocked or stopped.
Safari also masks your IP address, of course, and when a site asks for more precise location information, it asks you, the end user, to approve or deny it. This is all part of Apple’s four core pillars of privacy within Safari.
The ads themselves are pretty persuasive; on mobile, it’s a vertical takeover where someone peels back the top of the web page and the tagline “Your browsing is being viewed.” appears, with “Safari stops it” shortly after. The idea, of course, is to get more people to use these privacy features if they’re already using Safari – and remember, most of these settings are on by default – or to get people using Safari on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Vision Pro.
The full film paints a not-so-subtle picture of how Apple views the privacy differences between Android phones and the iPhone. It shows security cameras lurking around them, while the iPhone stops the cameras in their tracks and detonates them.
Still, it’s one of Apple’s more cheerful films, highlighting the serious functions of browsing the Internet on Apple devices.