Safari

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If you’re reading this week’s Security Bite on your desktop, look closely at your browser’s address bar. Notice how the main (root) domain is darker or black, while the rest of the URL is a lighter grey? This is not an accident — it’s actually a subtle psychological trick called salience bias. This little design choice has protected users from phishing attacks for over a decade.

Over the weekend, a buzzy story gained traction across several publications. It seemingly started with this New York Post article. The basic message: “Apple warns users to delete Chrome from their iPhones immediately.” If true, that would indeed be huge news. But the real details are more complicated and nuanced.

The criminals behind a phishing attack aimed at Windows users are now targeting Mac users instead. The goal is to steal your Apple Account credentials (aka Apple ID).

The security researchers who uncovered the scam say that it’s one of the most sophisticated attacks ever mounted against Mac users …

Apple has been running a variety of ads over the past year pushing Safari as the privacy-friendly browser choice for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users. But in iOS 18.4 beta 1, there’s a new Safari feature that may accidentally undercut that message—despite offering solid utility.

Update 3/19/25: Added information about a change in iOS 18.4 beta 4 below.

The UK competition watchdog has effectively told Apple that it must allow free and open competition between iPhone web browsers, but at the same time Safari cannot be better than its competitors.

Update: The final report is now out, with no change to the CMA’s stance.

Apple has responded by stating that making new features available within WebKit “would lead to free-riding” by developers creating competing browsers …

Honey is a popular browser extension owned by PayPal that’s at the center of a big new controversy. As a new investigative video outlines, the extension that’s meant to save users money not only misses key discounts, but also intentionally redirects affiliate funds away from creators.

Apple is likely to face antitrust action in the UK over Safari being the default web browser on iPhone. The country’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally concluded that the company abuses its control over iPhone apps.

This is likely to see Apple forced to take the same action it already did in the EU – allowing users to choose their default web browser when first setting up a new iPhone …

As we reported on Monday, Apple has published a new support document confirming that iCloud backup will stop working on iPhones and iPads running iOS 8 or older versions of the operating system. Now we’ve also learned that there will be restrictions on syncing Safari bookmarks as well.

Apple and other tech companies are constantly looking for ways to improve the security of their operating systems. Even so, some things go unnoticed. An exploit from 18 years ago is still being actively used by hackers to access internal networks, but Apple has already confirmed that it will fix this with macOS Sequoia.

Today Apple released macOS Sequoia beta 5 for developers, the latest version of the upcoming OS update for the Mac. Alongside other performance improvements and bug fixes, the highlight of today’s release is a new feature for Safari users: Distraction Control.

The first iteration of Apple Intelligence is now in users’ hands. New betas for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 have brought a subset of AI features in an early preview version. One such feature arrives in Apple’s browser, Safari.

Here’s how iOS 18.1 infuses Safari with AI to provide webpage summaries.

Apple is kicking off a new high-profile ad campaign today focused on Safari. The campaign takes direct aim at other browsers, such as Chrome, where “your browsing is being watched.” Safari, meanwhile, offers several robust privacy protections to protect your web browsing data.

There’s also a new story on Apple’s WebKit blog detailing Privacy Browsing 2.0 for Safari.

Safari is one of the many Apple apps bundled with iOS and macOS. With iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, Apple has introduced Safari 18 with new features and improvements. However, when it comes to the Mac, you don’t need to update your Mac to macOS 15 in order to try out the new Safari 18 beta.

Apple has made significant changes to the App Store guidelines in the European Union in order to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation. One of these changes allows developers to release iPhone web browsers with their own engine, but the company is making it difficult for developers to test their apps before releasing them to users in the EU.

Being prompted to make an iPhone web browser choice in Europe has seen an uptick in the use of third-party apps, but not everyone is happy about it.

The EU itself is investigating whether Apple’s implementation of the antitrust requirement goes far enough, and developers of third-party browsers say the process gets one thing right, and two things wrong …

Apple’s WebKit team has published a new blog post this week detailing how they’ve made significant upgrades to Safari’s performance over the last several months. The improvements come following the debut of Speedometer 3.0 in March, described as a “major step forward in making the web faster for all.”

One of the changes Apple had to make to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) was to present customers with a list of iPhone web browsers during setup, and to choose the one they want. Browsers must be listed in random order, so that Safari isn’t highlighted.

We’d previously seen some indication that the new antitrust law was proving effective, and a new report today says this is true for six leading browser companies …

Apple recently released iOS 17.4.1 and macOS Sonoma 14.4.1, both with two security patches. For users running older versions of macOS, the company has now released a standalone update for Safari, its own web browser, with the same patches included with macOS 14.4.1.

One change Apple made in iOS 17.4 has resulted in a notable increase in the number of iPhone owners choosing to install the Brave Browser app to use in place of Safari.

The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) required Apple to prompt European iPhone users to choose their default browser, with its own Safari app merely listed as one of the options …

Apple is making major changes to how web browsers can operate on iPhone for customers in the EU. iOS 17.4 will introduce the option to set your preferred default browser when you initially launch Safari, and browser makers will be able to use other browser engines.

We’ve written before about StopTheMadness, a powerful Safari extension designed to improve the experience of browsing the web. Now, developer Jeff Johnson is out with StopTheMadness Pro, the next-generation of the Safari extension for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Plus, head below for four promo codes for 9to5Mac readers…