Apple has paved the way for iPhone users to block online advertising shown in its Safari web browser, in an attempt to improve privacy that could prevent web publishers from reaching some of their most valuable customers.
苹果(Apple)为iPhone用户拦截Safari浏览器上显示的广告铺平了道路。苹果意在改善隐私保护的这一举措,可能会阻止网络出版商接触到一些最有价值的客户。
Changes planned for iOS 9, the iPhone and iPad operating system that will be pushed out later this year, include “Content Blocking Safari Extensions”, according to documents shared with app makers this week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
苹果在本周的全球开发者大会上与应用开发者分享的文件显示,它计划今年晚些时候推出的iOS 9操作系统(适用于iPhone和iPad)将做出上述改变。
“Content Blocking gives your extensions a fast and efficient way to block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups and other content,” Apple says in documentation for developers.
“内容拦截功能让你的拓展插件得以快速高效地拦截cookies、图片、资源、弹出框和其它内容,”苹果在一份致开发者的文件中说。
Apple believes that privacy and security are among its greatest differentiators against Google’s Android mobile platform, which as the main rival to iOS runs on more than three-quarters of all smartphones sold. Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, last week declared his belief in a “fundamental right to privacy” in a barnstorming speech in Washington DC.
苹果认为,隐私与安全是其产品区别于谷歌(Google)的安卓(Android)移动平台的最大特点之一。安卓平台是iOS的主要对手,所有售出智能手机中的三分之二都搭载了安卓平台。上月,苹果首席执行官蒂姆•库克(Tim Cook)在华盛顿特区一场巡回演讲中称,他认为用户应当拥有“最根本的隐私权”。
Over a video link from Silicon Valley, he told an audience at an event organised by privacy research group EPIC that many tech companies were “gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monitise it. We think that’s wrong”.
在参加隐私研究集团EPIC组织一场活动时,库克在硅谷与现场观众连线表示,许多科技公司都在“搜集他们所能了解的有关你的一切信息,并用它来赚钱。我们认为,那是不对的”。
Nonetheless, the move to enable ad-blocking on iPhones has caused concern among some in the media industry, as Apple customers are widely seen as a wealthier demographic desirable to advertisers.
然而,苹果在iPhone上开启广告拦截功能的做法,引起了媒体界一些公司的担忧,因为苹果客户被普遍认为是广告主希望接触的较为富有人群。
Joshua Benton, director of Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab, called it a “worrisome” development. “For the many news companies counting on mobile advertising for their business model, I don’t see a way that this change doesn’t shave off a real slice of mobile advertising revenue,” he wrote in a blogpost on Wednesday.
哈佛大学尼曼新闻实验室(Nieman Journalism Lab)主任约书亚•本顿(Joshua Benton),称苹果此举“令人担忧”。“对于许多把移动广告作为商业模式的新闻公司而言,我认为,这一变化肯定会令其损失一大部分移动广告收入,”周三他在一篇博文中上写道。
Ad-blocking has been available on the Mac version of Safari for several years but, if taken up by developers, the tool would mean users can choose to install an app that would block online advertising and the tools used to target it on the iPhone’s browser for the first time.
几年来,Mac版的Safari浏览器一直可以拦截广告,但如果应用程序开发者也这么做将意味着,手机用户第一次可以选择安装拦截应用,在iPhone浏览器上拦截在线广告或用于精准投放广告的工具。
The planned update comes as Apple tries to re-establish its place at the heart of the media and entertainment industry with the launch of Music, a new all-in-one subscription streaming and radio app, and News, a slick magazine-style app showing a range of free content from publishers that will compete with the likes of Flipboard and Facebook’s Instant Stories. Apple’s News app will allow publishers to sell their own advertising or split revenues when using its own iAd tool.
计划作出上述变动之时,苹果推出了Apple Music和Apple News两款应用,努力重塑自己在媒体和娱乐行业的核心地位。Apple Music是一款全新的多功能合一的流媒体和无线电广播订阅应用。Apple News是一款精美的杂志式应用,可以展示来自出版商的大量免费内容,将与Flipboard和Facebook的Instant Stories等应用展开竞争。Apple News将允许出版商出售自己的广告,或者在使用iAd工具时与苹果分享收入。