The Apple Safari browser is known for its stringent privacy and security feature. One such feature is a privacy report that displays the number of website data trackers blocked. Many users aren’t interested in knowing the count. This privacy report is introduced to Safari’s start page. However, we can disable Privacy Report from the customization menu.
Many companies and publishers run trackers and scripts to track visitors’ browsing behavior. It will give them an idea regarding the content the user interacts with the most.
It would then guarantee the publisher a higher chance of user interaction as those contents are curated according to the user’s online behavior. The result, on paper, seems beneficial to both the publishers and the users.
On the other hand, the users will mostly get contents that fall in line with their interest. But in reality, the benefits accrued by the users come at a cost- a cost of putting their online privacy at risk. As a result, many users prefer to browse in a secure environment, where the trackers aren’t allowed to keep a tab on their online activities.
In this regard, Safari has been doing quite a decent job blocking third-party trackers and scripts across various sites for ages. However, till now, all its work has been carried out in the backend. But Safari made some tweaks to show the visual report about these trackers.
These reports contain the website names tracking you in the past 30 days and the total number of trackers those sites ran. It also lists the names of those trackers, those who own them, and the number of sites they have left their mark.
However, while Safari’s tracking prevention measures are commendable, the same cannot be said about its reports. It is an unnecessary addition for some, as they hardly ever look at the details of individual trackers and their associated sites. Moreover, the data collection for generating this reporting only adds more MBs to the overall browser data.
Considering all this, many users wish to eliminate the Privacy Report on their Safari browser. If you are also on the same page, this guide is here to help you.
On this page, you can find and jump to:
Disable Privacy Report
The Privacy Report is part of Safari’s privacy feature. If you want to disable it, you need to stop using Safari’s block cross-site tracking feature technically.
Here are the steps to disable privacy reports:
- Launch the Safari browser on Mac.
- Click on Safari from the menubar and select Preferences/Settings sub-menu.
It will launch Safari’s Preferences window. - Switch to the Privacy tab and disable the checkbox for Prevent cross-site tracking option.
It will immediately disable the Privacy Report feature on the Safari Mac browser. If you launch the Privacy Report, then it will ask to enable the Prevent cross-site tracking option.
Similarly, to disable privacy reports on iOS/iPadOS devices, you can visit the Safari Settings page from the Settings app and disable the toggle button for Prevent Cross-Site Tracking under Privacy & Security section.
Get Rid of Privacy Report
If you want to disable the privacy report section from the Safari start page, you can easily do it from the Customize menu. It does not require you to disable the Cross-site tracking from Safari’s Privacy preferences.
- Open the Safari app on Mac and go to Start Page.
- Click on Customize
situated at the bottom right.
It will display the customized menu list. - Disable the checkbox for the Privacy Report option.
That’s it. Safari will no longer bug you with these reports from now on the Start page.
Disable Privacy Report on iPhone
Like Mac, there is again a direct approach to disable this feature on your iPhone start page. We can Edit the start page and disable the toggle for Privacy Report.
Here are the steps to hide the Safari iPhone’s Privacy Report:
- Launch the Safari app on your iPhone.
- Open a new tab with Start Page, and scroll to the end.
- Tap on the button.
It shall take you to the Customize Start Page. - Disable the Privacy Report toggle button.
It will immediately disable the Privacy Report section from the Safari Start page.
Bottom Line
Those were steps to remove privacy reports from Safari Mac and iOS. Many users aren’t interested in knowing the technical know-how of the trackers, their presence across multiple sites, or who owns them.
Furthermore, they don’t wish to be distracted by these regular reports and distance themselves safely. Since Safari is blocking these harmful trackers, it’s all good from their end.
It’s recommended to keep the privacy feature enabled in the background and hide these privacy reports from Safari’s Start page. It will help in data safety without any inconvenience.
On that note, we round off this guide on disabling the privacy report from Safari. Please feel free to share how helpful Safari’s privacy reports are.
Lastly, if you've any thoughts or feedback, then feel free to drop in below comment box. You can also report the outdated information.
