Safari vs Privacy vs Usability
A web browser is like a two-way mirror into the world. While you are looking at a website, many are looking back at you, tracking how long you spend on a page, where you click, and where you go next, all in order to gather specific marketing information about you.
Some people don't care about this, while others go to great lengths to shield their privacy on the internet. The problem is that protecting your privacy online comes at the cost of practicality. Some sites simply don't work at all, even with a modest amount of privacy protection enabled by the user, leaving you with the choice to surrender or walk away. Apple makes significant efforts to protect your privacy with the Safari web browser and some measures in the Network settings.
Recently, I have noticed that I have to override some privacy settings in Safari to use a website. Here's how you can disable some of the protective measures to make some elements on a website visible:
1. While in Safari, click on "Safari" in the menu bar.
2. Click on the Websites icon.
3. Select Content Blockers: Choose the website and change it to "Off."
4. Select Auto-Play: Choose the website and change it to "Off."
5. Select Notifications: Choose the website and change it to "Off."
6. Select Pop-up windows: Choose the website and change it to "Off."
7. Close the Safari Preferences window.
8. Reload the website if needed.
These are quite a few steps, and over time, you might end up with a long list of sites for which you've made exemptions. Alternatively, you could change the default setting in the Safari Website Preferences window by choosing the option "When visiting other websites: Allow All..." It's a personal choice; I would rather go through the steps as described above than give it all up. Keep in mind that Auto Play, Notifications, and Pop-Up windows can be annoying on some websites. If you gave permission for, say, a Pop-up window to appear, and it's being abused, you can always turn it back off again.
Google Chrome
Since Google Chrome is a Google product, we can reasonably expect that all activity in this browser is harvested for marketing purposes by Google. Sometimes, it's simply more convenient to open a website in Chrome with the understanding that privacy may not be fully maintained. You might want to make it more evident that you are using Chrome by customizing the theme color. I have chosen a bright red one. Click on this [LINK](https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/11032183?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&sjid=5832133355459528985-EU#zippy=%2Cchange-browser-theme) to find instructions provided by Google.
A word about Privacy Mode
All browsers offer a "Privacy" mode, but its primary function is to hide the websites you have visited from the next person using the web browser. It has little to do with protecting your privacy on the internet.
