By Nikki Main Science Reporter for Dailymail.Com
18:53 Jun 27, 2024, updated 20:26 Jun 27, 2024
Apple has sent out a major warning to all of its 1.46 billion iPhone users, largely targeting Google Chrome.
The tech giant has put up billboards around the world to promote its Safari search app, which it touts as “a browser that is truly private.”
Although the ad doesn’t mention Google Chrome by name, it is the most downloaded search browser for smartphones, surpassing Safari by more than two million.
Although the billboard is an attack on Google, the company announced earlier this year that it is collecting data from everyone who uses Chrome.
The ad has been spotted in cities such as San Francisco, London and Paris, as well as in far-reaching countries including Singapore and Australia, where people have seen the ad on the internet. billboards, public transport and public buildings.
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“Interesting to know it’s not just in Singapore,” one person commented on a post from someone who had seen the ad in Australia.
‘On the contrary, imho [in my honest opinion] it’s a good idea. It’s a fresh way to advertise.
‘Some people will be curious. Especially those who are not in the Apple ecosystem and may not know what Safari is.”
Someone else wrote the following on the San Francisco billboard: “When you see Google settling a lawsuit because its incognito platform isn’t so incognito, there’s no question that this is a response to that.”
Apple’s ads appear to warn people not to use Google. Google has been repeatedly criticized for the way its Chrome browser stores cookies and search information.
“Google announced earlier this year that it collects your data when you use Google Chrome, even if you use incognito mode,” Jake Moore, a global security advisor at cybersecurity firm ESET, told Forbes.
“Personal data is so valuable to companies and when terms and conditions are so difficult to understand, users can easily let companies simply collect data whenever they want.”
However, a Google spokesperson told DailyMail.com that the company is committed to keeping 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 that users should always be in control. That’s why we built easy-to-use privacy and security settings right into Chrome.”
The company’s Google Chrome 125 update exposed nine security vulnerabilities after it warned that a flaw could allow a remote attacker to add their own code using an HTML page to destabilize someone’s browser.
A 2020 class action lawsuit also alleged that Google improperly tracked users’ browsing habits when they thought they were visiting private websites.
Google finally settled a lawsuit in April that demanded it delete billions of records of data revealing users’ private browsing activities and give people who are incognito the ability to block third-party cookies.
“The settlement requires Google to delete and restore the data it unlawfully collected in the past on an unprecedented scale and scope,” David Boies, the attorney in the lawsuit, told ABC News.