Macworld - USA (2020-04)

APRIL 2020 MACWORLD 21

SAFARI EXTENSION

1BLOCKER 3:

SAFARI EXTENSION

REVAMPS ITS

CONTENT-

BLOCKING FOR

MACOS CATALINA

BY GLENN FLEISHMAN

IMAGE: SALAVAT KHANOV

Apple introduced content-blocking Safari

extensions in 2015 for iOS and 2016 for

macOS, offering third-party developers a

way to bring rule-based blocking without

requiring users to give up privacy.

Extension creators can produce and update

unwanted lists of URLs, structural page

elements, and a few other kinds of items

that are unwanted or outright malicious.

These lists are loaded into Safari, which

handles blocking. User behavior isn’t

uploaded—it’s a one-way street.

1Blocker (go.macworld.com/1blk) was

one of the first to enter this market,

producing an app that paired with

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