WWDC: Safari will block third-party ad trackers from following users around the web

Among the announcements coming out of Apple’s WWDC developer conference is news that Safari will prevent cross-site tracking.

Apple Senior VP Craig Federighi said “intelligent tracking prevention” uses machine learning to keep trackers, namely ad trackers and third-party data trackers, from following users as they browse from site to site.

That browsing information data is routinely used for retargeting, interest and other behavioral ad targeting.

Ads themselves aren’t blocked, just the user’s previous browsing data. The move is “not about blocking ads — the web behaves as it always did, but your privacy is protected,” said Federighi.

We don’t have all the details yet, and we will update as we learn more. The move again sets Safari apart from Google’s Chrome from a privacy perspective.

Federighi also said Safari will implement auto-play blocking to keep music and video from automatically playing when a page loads on websites.

Update: For more, see our follow up story How Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention works & why Google/Facebook could benefit most.