A VPN Service Should be Apple’s Next Killer App
By: Zach Laidlaw
Tags: Apple, SaaS, Privacy, Technology, VPN

Modern technology hasn’t just placed the World Wide Web and all it has to offer in the palm of our hands. It has also enabled bad actors — and otherwise decent groups who want to know a little bit more about you than they should — to follow you online, wherever you may roam.

That doesn’t have to be the case, however. Apple, the largest tech company that still values customer privacy, is poised to change the ad tracking game in a big way. All they have to do is build what could be the most important service of their online legacy.

Ways Ad Companies Track Your Online Browsing Excursions

Although today’s technology is presented to consumers in neat, comfortable little packages that fit in the palms of our hands, even a device as accessible as your smartphone opens you up to the prestige and pitfalls of the World Wide Web.

In a perfect world, the websites you visit, the content you consume, the products you purchase, and everything in between would be your personal business, but that’s not the case.

Your browsing adventures are being watched by ad companies that want to leverage what they know about you to turn your data into dollar bills.

There are a handful of tools designed to follow you from website to website and record your interests.

You’ve probably heard of “cookies,” bite-sized bits of invisible website code that break off and cling to your devices to remember helpful things, like your personal preferences and settings on a site, but they can also identify your device for ad purposes, as well.

Another common tracking technique is canvas fingerprinting, a script that uses increasingly popular HTML5 code to identify devices in lieu of cookies.

These are only two of the many different tools advertisers can leverage against you, all without your knowledge or impacting your browsing experience. These tools are virtually invisible, and only more will emerge over time.

All the Ways Apple Helps Users Block Ads and Tracking Tech

Apple provides several ways for users to block invasive ad tech, and most of them are woven directly into the fabric of iOS, padOS and macOS

“Prevent Cross-Site Tracking” works to thwart canvas fingerprinting and any other bits of code that may try to relay your browsing activity from one site to another. You also have the option to “Block All Cookies,” which makes it harder for a website to identify your specific device, though disabling this feature can also break some of the more positive aspect of website tech, which we mentioned above.

Finally, Apple has opened ad blocking tech to third parties by letting users install ad blocking apps and extensions directly into Safari for added security. I have personally been using 1Blocker X on all of my devices for years. So far, it’s done a great job at eliminating the vast majority of ads within Safari and cleaning up my web consuming experiences.

Some things to note, however: First, Apple’s built-in ad blocking tools only work while using Safari. They will not protect you when using a third party web browser, like Chrome. Second, third party ad blocking apps only work within Safari web browsing sessions; it will not remove ads from free, ad-supported applications downloaded from the App Store.

What Apple’s Ad Blocking Tech Doesn’t Do

As powerful as Apple’s ad and tracker blocking tools may be, they’re not fool-proof. Advertisers have figured out other ways to follow consumers that don’t involve conventional means.

For example, Apple’s tools have no way of blocking the IP address on your home WiFi, public Wifi or the data connection with your phone carrier.

This means the companies that own your data connections — internet providers, telephone companies and router manufacturers — and even search engines (which also happens to include the world’s most powerful ad company, Google) can still vaguely track your location and search history through your IP address, even if you’re using an incognito or private browsing mode.

Like your home address, your IP address remains constant, giving advertisers the power to see when your address makes a request to access their connected websites or services.

VPN to The Rescue

But it doesn’t have to be this way. VPNs are the last piece of solving the privacy puzzle and ensuring complete anonymity across the web.

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. A device with a VPN installed virtually connects to a computer or server far away and uses that connection to access the web. This, in turn, conceals your device’s identification attributes by making it look like a different device entirely. Better still, VPN software often changes servers on a regular basis, making it impossible to track your specific device or location from one session to another.

A VPN is basically a world-wide travel passport for your devices’ connections, and it flies to a different location every time you access the internet.

Who is a VPN for?

Everyone! You don’t have to be a high-level executive, a celebrated public figure or even the president of the United States to want to protect your personal data.

The truth is that all data is valuable. As proof, think about two of the most successful companies in the world that offer their flagship products to consumers, en masse, for free: search engine giant, Google, and social media phenom, Facebook. These two companies thrived for more than a decade by gathering their customers’ data and using it to target ads for products that they have an invested stake in users buying.

Today, Google and Facebook still offer their flagship products — search and social — for free, which means their business models are working. They’re making heaps of money off of your data.

Why a VPN Should be Apple’s Next Killer App

There are nearly an endless number of VPN services available on the market, and up until now, finding the perfect one can be a bit of a gamble.

VPNs aren’t regulated by any branches of government or corporate agreements, which means all companies that host them treat VPNs differently. For instance, some companies offer VPN server access for free, but in exchange for services, they do the exact thing VPNs are supposed to prevent: track your browsing activity and collect personal data. Other VPNs offer paid solutions, but their data connection speeds aren’t always stable.

The truth is that a successful VPN needs an array of fast, reliable servers for users to connect to, and without substantial bandwidth and plenty of funds, building and maintaining such a network is a slog at best.

That is, unless you already have a mound of cash, plenty of technical know-how, a vested interest in defending customers’ privacy and a proven track record of launching quality products.

Enter the crew at Cupertino!

Apple has spent the last several years touting their stance on privacy and putting their virtual money where their mouths are with privacy-oriented features, but as we’ve already explained, Apple’s privacy push is missing one final piece: the ability to conceal IP addresses. It’s missing a VPN!

Furthermore, the last several years have been transformative for Apple. They’ve minimized their hardware roots and planted new seeds that are flourishing around digital services. A VPN would play perfectly into one of Apple’s new monthly service subscriptions, and they could even bundle it with other professional tools to give it some extra appeal.

What Does the Future Hold?

Will a VPN be Apple’s next killer app? Probably not. Up until this point, there haven’t been any rumors or leaks suggesting such a service is in the works.

Should a VPN be Apple’s next killer app? Definitely! It fits into Apple’s business model and expertise in every single way: a focus on privacy, the rise of services and putting customers’ needs first.

Start a Conversation

Have you ever considered using a VPN service? Do you currently use one now? If so, would you be interested in switching to an Apple-operated VPN if it became available? Finally, how much would you be willing to pay every month or year for an Apple VPN service?

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Thanks for reading!