April 2020 • Macworld 13appear and hide content. This feature appeared
in earlier releases.
Content-blocking tools can be contentious if
their entire goal is to prevent sites from receiving
revenue from ads shown to visitors. 1Blocker
threads that needle by offering switches and
customization that let users still see ads they
want or load everything at sites they trust while
blocking much that’s unneeded, invasive of
privacy, or actively risky.
A new extensions approach
Safari once had a wide-ranging architecture for
extensions, and it was an environment where a
number of privacy tools thrived. Some of them
focused on blocking ads, while others had a
broader interest in preventing a range of behaviour.
But in Apple’s ongoing effort to limit the surface
in which malware can affect users, it opted to
shift extensions entirely to the Mac App Store
and limit their functionality. (Some argue Apple
has other motives, but the company continues
to invest in the development of built-in Safari
anti-tracking features.)
However, 1Blocker didn’t require these extra
features. Version 3 upgrades its code, overhauls
its interface, and shifts it into a Mac App Store
install. But it’s mostly the same app, though it’s
easier to use in nearly every respect.
Because 1Blocker relies on the content-blocking
rules allowed in Safari, its only real limitation is
how many rules Apple allows at once – 50,