Adblock in Safari may die with IOS 9 ad-killer feature

  • 11 June 2015
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June 11, 2015  By Pierluigi Paganini
 
                                                  http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ios-9.png
 

Apple announced a series of improvement for it IOS 9, including a content blocker can kill a lot of applications similar the popular AdBlock.

 
A lot have been talks about IOS 9, and now looks like Apple included an ad-blocking feature in its OS, I would say it is a great news for its customers, but for the developers of applications like Adblock it could become a nightmare.
 
“The new Safari release brings Content Blocking Safari Extensions to iOS. Content Blocking gives your extensions a fast and efficient way to block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups, and other content.” States Apple.
 
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It’s unclear if Apple is setting a precedent, or has only accidentally allowed the approval of a new app, known as Been Choice, into the iTunes App Store. The app claims to block advertisements not only in mobile applications, but also in native mobile apps, including Facebook and even Apple’s own News application. To make this work, Been Choice offers a combination of a content blocker for Safari and a VPN service, the latter which allows it to filter out ad traffic using deep packet inspection.
Obviously, blocking ads in native applications could be disruptive to the primary way a number of mobile application developers make money today. So while Apple may be catering to consumers’ growing disgust with invasive and disruptive online advertisements by supporting ad-blocking technology in its newly released mobile operating system, iOS 9, it seems that allowing an app like Been Choice to actually block ads in native apps – and in particular, Apple’s own News app – goes against Apple’s own best interests.  
 
 http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/06/apple-approves-an-app-that-blocks-ads-in-native-apps-including-apple-news/
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Apple Inc said on Thursday that it had removed "a few" applications from its App Store, expressing its concern that the security of some users' personal data could be compromised in certain circumstances.
The company said the apps threatened users' security by installing certificates that can expose data to monitoring by third parties. The company did not specify the precise number of apps at issue.   
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/09/us-apple-apps-privacy-idUSKCN0S307V20151009
 
Among the apps removed was Been Choice, which has attracted attention for its ability to block advertising in apps.
 
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  By Lara O'Reilly,
 
Apple has removed an ad blocking app from its App Store that block ads in other apps, as well as a number of other non-ad blocking apps that employ similar "deep packet inspection" techniques, citing privacy concerns.
 
Apple removes Been Choice and other ad blockers from its app store - Business Insider
 
Been Choice cofounder Dave Yoon emailed Business Insider this statement:
They are enforcing end-to-end encryption for their apps. We explained to them that (1) we were unpacking the data stream for the sole purpose of removing ads from the following apps: Facebook, Yahoo, Yahoo Finance, Google, Pinterest — and only in Block Mode. (2) No data from any other app was touched. And (3) that we were explicit in our app and on our website, and in our presentations to the press about what we were doing, and for what purpose, with what special safeguards.
We will remove this capability to block ads in Facebook, Yahoo, Yahoo Finance, Google, and Pinterest tonight and resubmit tomorrow morning for expedited approval. The ad and tracker blocking in other apps will not be impacted. We asked for explicit guidance on blocking ads in Apple News (not covered in the above requirement), and our contact at Apple would not give us a ruling. So we will submit a version that will continue to block iAds and see if we can get back on.

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