Apple’s Safari kills annoying content overlays with ‘Distraction Control’

Apple has introduced what might seem a controversial new Safari feature to make surfing the web a lot less annoying, as it removes those overlays that sometimes gets in the way of the experience. The new feature is called Distraction Control.

What is Distraction Control in Safari?

Coming this fall to Safari, Distraction Control lets users hide distracting items such as sign-in banners, newsletter subscription sign-ups, pestering subscription requests, or content overlays users see while browsing the web. 

These kinds of elements are not removed by most ads blockers; now, Safari will do it for you. It lets you choose which overlays to remove, after which you won’t be exposed to them next time you visit the site. In the context of user need, that’s great, but as a unique feature it gives Apple’s browser an additional USP as it is forced to open its platforms up. (If you’re using latest iOS and macOS betas you can now work with Distraction Control, which is scheduled to ship with macOS Sequoia, iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.)

How does Distraction Control work?

The tool is only automatic to an extent. That means the first time you visit a site that carries these kinds of overlays, Safari will render them precisely as the website wants.  But this is where Safari gives you a choice: just tap in the Smart Search field to surface the Page Menu, where you will find the Distraction Control tool (Hide Distracting Items). Tap this and you will be able to select the distracting site element(s) you want removed from view. Safari will then automatically remove that element and won’t show it again until the content is changed — it’s not a 100% removal solution.

To unhide these items, click the Hide icon in the search field and then tap Show Hidden Items.

What doesn’t Distraction Control do?

Distraction Control is not an ad blocker — you’ll need other tools for that. What it does is identify these items to provide you with the option of removing them. Safari is not generating content it thinks sits behind these on-page items, either. It just shows the content itself. The feature is not designed and cannot be used to evade paywalls. 

Why might it be controversial?

The new feature adds to Apple’s privacy-first browser, which is festooned with protective features such as Intelligent Tracking Prevention and private browsing that is actually private. Over time, however, many of the privacy-protecting tools Apple has put inside Safari have raised resistance, usually from across the less salubrious parts of the surveillance-based advertising industry. Because this new tool might reduce the effectiveness of some of the most annoying on-page elements out there, it seems inevitable Apple will face resistance once again.

Perhaps the most controversial part of this involves the economics of running websites. Many site publishers have seen income yields fall dramatically since tougher GDPR rules came into effect. The impact of these has been particularly tough on small web publishers who, in some cases, have seen incomes collapse.

Many of these had turned to subscriptions and mailing lists in an attempt to claw back some of this income, and Apple’s new feature could make the task of attracting those signups more difficult — even as AI developers continue to grab content from those same sites to make their technologies seem more genuine. 

What privacy features does Safari provide?

As noted, Safari already offers a host of privacy protecting features, including:

• Intelligent Tracking Prevention to prevent cross-site tracking.
• Private Browsing.
• Passkeys: Better than passwords.
• Password monitoring: Built in protection against compromised passwords.
• Privacy Report — what trackers are tracking you and who is being blocked.
• Social widget tracking prevention.
• Fingerprinting defense: Prevents advertisers and websites tracking you using the unique features of your device.

You can also read an extensive whitepaper detailing Safari’s privacy protecting technologies; it’s available here.

What else is coming to Safari this fall?

Apple has already revealed several additional features for its Safari browser. 

First, it tweaked how Safari tools are accessed by making these available via the URL bar; in keeping with the rest of the UI, this also gives the company a little more space within which to offer additional tools in the future.

New tools also include Highlights, which automatically detects relevant information on a page and highlights this as you browse and a much improved Reader tool that adds a summary and table of contents when you look at web content.

The company has also spun out Safari’s built in Keychain-based password manager as a standalone app. These new features will appear when the operating systems ship in fall.

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