Apple Calls Out Chrome for Failing to Protect User Privacy

Apple has delivered a powerful and highly critical warning to iPhone and Mac users, unequivocally stating that continuing to use Google Chrome compromises their digital privacy and urging them to switch to Safari. The primary issue is digital fingerprinting, an advanced and persistent tracking method that constructs a unique profile of a user based on seemingly unrelated data points, such as installed fonts and hardware specifications, to track them across the web, completely bypassing Incognito mode and cookie blockers. Apple's concern is heightened by the fact that Google has allegedly removed restrictions on this covert technique within Chrome, leaving its massive user base vulnerable to surveillance that is core to Google's advertising business model. Apple's position is that Chrome’s lack of strong default protection for its users against this invisible form of tracking is a fundamental failure of privacy design.

Apple is positioning its own browser, Safari, as the essential defence against this aggressive tracking. Safari's technology directly counters the fingerprinting technique by presenting a simplified, standardised system profile to trackers, making an individual device look identical to millions of others and thus rendering the unique fingerprint useless. Furthermore, Apple emphasises that Safari bundles a comprehensive privacy arsenal, including AI-based tracking prevention, location safeguards, and superior private browsing, which Chrome severely lacks. The company even preemptively removed any compatibility excuse by noting that Safari works "seamlessly" with Google’s own productivity apps, such as Docs and Sheets, making the switch a matter of choice.