蘋果將允許手機用戶攔截在線廣告

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.

蘋果(Apple)爲iPhone用戶攔截Safari瀏覽器上顯示的廣告鋪平了道路。蘋果意在改善隱私保護的這一舉措，可能會阻止網絡出版商接觸到一些最有價值的客戶。

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.

蘋果在本週的全球開發者大會上與應用開發者分享的文件顯示，它計劃今年晚些時候推出的iOS 9操作系統（適用於iPhone和iPad）將做出上述改變。

“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.

“內容攔截功能讓你的拓展插件得以快速高效地攔截cookies、圖片、資源、彈出框和其它內容，”蘋果在一份致開發者的文件中說。

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.

蘋果認爲，隱私與安全是其產品區別於谷歌(Google)的安卓(Android)移動平臺的最大特點之一。安卓平臺是iOS的主要對手，所有售出智能手機中的三分之二都搭載了安卓平臺。上月，蘋果首席執行官蒂姆•庫克(Tim Cook)在華盛頓特區一場巡迴演講中稱，他認爲用戶應當擁有“最根本的隱私權”。

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”.

在參加隱私研究集團EPIC組織一場活動時，庫克在硅谷與現場觀衆連線表示，許多科技公司都在“蒐集他們所能瞭解的有關你的一切信息，並用它來賺錢。我們認爲，那是不對的”。

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，蘋果在iPhone上開啓廣告攔截功能的做法，引起了媒體界一些公司的擔憂，因爲蘋果客戶被普遍認爲是廣告主希望接觸的較爲富有人羣。

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.

哈佛大學尼曼新聞實驗室(Nieman Journalism Lab)主任約書亞•本頓(Joshua Benton)，稱蘋果此舉“令人擔憂”。“對於許多把移動廣告作爲商業模式的新聞公司而言，我認爲，這一變化肯定會令其損失一大部分移動廣告收入，”週三他在一篇博文中上寫道。

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.

幾年來，Mac版的Safari瀏覽器一直可以攔截廣告，但如果應用程序開發者也這麼做將意味着，手機用戶第一次可以選擇安裝攔截應用，在iPhone瀏覽器上攔截在線廣告或用於精準投放廣告的工具。

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.

計劃作出上述變動之時，蘋果推出了Apple Music和Apple News兩款應用，努力重塑自己在媒體和娛樂行業的核心地位。Apple Music是一款全新的多功能合一的流媒體和無線電廣播訂閱應用。Apple News是一款精美的雜誌式應用，可以展示來自出版商的大量免費內容，將與Flipboard和Facebook的Instant Stories等應用展開競爭。Apple News將允許出版商出售自己的廣告，或者在使用iAd工具時與蘋果分享收入。