Safari (macOS)

[anon64393658]

Umm, yes I am aware.

All of my comments have been directly about Safari not WebKit.

I’m a bit confused by your comment honestly.

[Morph]

WebKit seems like a relevant point in a thread about Safari.

Anyways, given that iOS/ipadOS browsers still run on WebKit, it’s more obvious why PG recommends Safari for mobile. I think it’s less obvious why they should recommend Safari for macOS.

[fria]

@anon64393658

Also a comment on non-Safari Apple features like lockdown mode or Private Relay in general. I do not think Safari (or any tool) should get ‘credit’ for other tools homework. Enabling Lockdown mode does make Safari very secure, but lockdown mode isn’t a Safari feature. It’s a MacOS feature. Private relay is an iCloud Plus feature. Not a Safari feature.

Since Safari only runs on Apple devices, these features are always there. It’s effectively the same as if they were specifically Safari features.

@anon64393658

On its own, out of the box, I do not think Safari is better than Brave for MacOS users. It can be combined with other things to make a very secure and private set up, but those additional actions I think are out of scope for a browser specific recommendation.

I don’t really understand why it would be out of scope, it’s available for all Safari users. We already bring up Advanced Data Protection for Safari on iOS for example.

[anon64393658]

You could make that argument for ADP syncing as that is available for free (Brave also has E2EE sync). However, Private Relay is a paid feature.

The benefits of lockdown mode, disabling Java Script and JIT, is configurable in Brave. The difference is usability in that Lockdown mode can provide per website exceptions. But it comes with the additional trade offs of system wide limitations like nerfing iMessage and FaceTime. It also breaks some extensions.

The point here is why add another recommendation when others already suit the requirements and have the added benefit of being open source?

My understanding of the intent of the PG recommendations is to provide the best available options. Expanding that to all reasonable tools will make the site unwieldy and impossible to keep current.

[anon64393658]

I just wanted to come back here because this topic inspired my own deep dive on Safari vs Brave for my use case.

Based on further reflection and the discussions in this thread with @fria and @Lukas , I change my position and now agree with the OP. Safari should be added as a recommendation for MacOS.