Comment by solardev
You're trying to apply a technological solution to a financial problem. It won't work because the web, and especially Google, depends on advertising and tracking to survive. They'll never agree to anything that kills their business.
Websites generally aren't made with the user in mind. More often than not, users aren't customers to be served, just eyeballs to be monetized. Safari and Firefox can't do anything without Chrome; it'll just be another stillborn effort like DNT.
The other browsers you mentioned are just Chrome derivatives. They still depend on Google.
Nothing will change unless Google is forced to divest Chrome and some non advertising company buys it.
Just to clarify a bit on browser engines: - Safari runs on WebKit, an independent rendering engine maintained by Apple. - Firefox runs on Gecko (specifically the newer Quantum version), which is fully independent and maintained by Mozilla. - Chrome, Brave, Edge, Opera, and most others run on Blink, which is Google’s fork of WebKit.
So while it’s true that many browsers today are Chromium derivatives, Safari and Firefox are not — they operate their own engines and could, in theory, push independent privacy standards without Google’s blessing.
Also important to note: Because Apple requires all iOS browsers to use WebKit under the hood (even "Chrome" and "Firefox" on iPhone), any browser-native privacy feature Apple implements through WebKit would effectively apply to all browsers on iPhones and iPads by default.
That’s a much bigger user base impact than just Safari desktop users.
That said, you’re absolutely right about the broader market power problem: - Chrome controls ~65% of browser usage worldwide. - Many web developers treat Chrome as the de facto standard when building sites. - Anything Safari or Firefox introduce has a harder uphill climb unless it becomes incredibly popular with users and gets picked up by regulators.
The fight here isn’t just technical — it’s economic and cultural too.
Still, I think it’s worth trying. Even small pressure can move norms over time, especially with user frustration around tracking being so high right now.
Appreciate you raising it — it’s a critical part of the puzzle.