Filtr is a new privacy tool that blocks ads in almost every iPhone and Mac app
Filtr is a new privacy tool that blocks ads in almost every iPhone and Mac app
Filtr 是一款全新的隐私工具，可拦截几乎所有 iPhone 和 Mac 应用中的广告
Using an ad blocker is good for your security, privacy, and even the FBI recommends them to defend from online harms. But as much as ad blockers are great for cleaning up your browsing experience, these tools often do little to prevent the pervasive tracking from ads within apps. Now, thanks to a new feature in iOS 18 and macOS 15, one developer has built the first device-level ad blocker that works across all of Apple’s main products — iPhones, iPads, and Macs — and isn’t just limited to the browser.
使用广告拦截器对您的安全和隐私大有裨益，甚至连美国联邦调查局（FBI）也建议使用它们来抵御网络危害。尽管广告拦截器在优化浏览体验方面表现出色，但这些工具往往难以阻止应用内广告带来的无孔不入的追踪。现在，得益于 iOS 18 和 macOS 15 中的一项新功能，一位开发者打造了首款设备级的广告拦截器，它适用于苹果的所有主要产品（iPhone、iPad 和 Mac），且不再局限于浏览器。
Filtr is a new tool created and maintained by Kaylee Serena Calderolla, the developer behind the popular Safari browser ad blocker Wipr. Wipr prevents ads from ever appearing in Safari, meaning that the ads won’t load, nor will their tracking code that advertisers use to follow you around the web and snoop on which websites you visit. The result is a cleaner browsing experience, free from advertisers watching over your online activity.
Filtr 是一款由 Kaylee Serena Calderolla 创建并维护的新工具，她也是广受欢迎的 Safari 浏览器广告拦截器 Wipr 的开发者。Wipr 可以防止广告在 Safari 中出现，这意味着广告不会加载，广告商用来在网络上追踪您并窥探您访问哪些网站的追踪代码也不会加载。其结果是带来更清爽的浏览体验，让您免受广告商对您在线活动的监视。
Filtr is an additional paid-for feature bundled into Wipr that goes one step further than ad-blocking in the browser by blocking ads in iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps. Filtr does this by using a new feature embedded in the latest Apple software called URL filters, which lets developers block access to certain websites or domains at the network level, rather than just in the browser.
Filtr 是集成在 Wipr 中的一项额外付费功能，它比浏览器广告拦截更进一步，能够拦截 iPhone、iPad 和 Mac 应用中的广告。Filtr 通过利用苹果最新软件中嵌入的一项名为“URL 过滤器”（URL filters）的新功能来实现这一点，该功能允许开发者在网络层面（而非仅仅在浏览器中）拦截对特定网站或域名的访问。
I use ad blockers across various devices all the time (even if websites like this one ask that you switch them off). I have — full disclosure — used Wipr as my main ad blocker on my Apple devices for years as a paying customer. I also use ad blockers on other browsers on my desktop computers and make use of a Pi-hole ad blocker, a small server that sits on my network at home and prevents ads from reaching any of my devices connected to my home Wi-Fi. But that still leaves my devices largely open to ads when I’m not on my home network, as well as the various apps that I use that are chock full of ads — including web browsers that aren’t Safari.
我一直都在各种设备上使用广告拦截器（即使像本站这样的网站会要求您关闭它们）。我必须坦诚地说明，作为一名付费用户，多年来我一直将 Wipr 作为我在苹果设备上的主要广告拦截器。我还在台式机的其他浏览器上使用广告拦截器，并利用 Pi-hole（一种位于我家网络中的小型服务器）来防止广告到达连接到家庭 Wi-Fi 的任何设备。但当我不在家庭网络中时，我的设备仍然会暴露在广告之下，而且我使用的各种应用（包括非 Safari 的网页浏览器）也充斥着广告。
As you can imagine, I was keen to give Filtr a spin. Filtr particularly appealed because, as Calderolla states in her privacy policy, her apps “do not collect personal data.” Her apps also don’t need to access any personal information to work, and neither does Apple’s URL filter feature. For me, it was a no-brainer — all upside, and no tradeoff. I paid for the $5 annual subscription, added the URL filter to my iPhone, and that was that. The relief was immediate. Every app I opened loaded without its usual flood of ads. Some ad slots showed greyed placeholder spaces where the ads would have loaded.
可以想象，我非常渴望尝试一下 Filtr。Filtr 特别吸引我，因为正如 Calderolla 在其隐私政策中所述，她的应用“不会收集个人数据”。她的应用在工作时也不需要访问任何个人信息，苹果的 URL 过滤器功能也是如此。对我来说，这是一个无需多想的选择——全是好处，没有代价。我支付了 5 美元的年度订阅费，将 URL 过滤器添加到我的 iPhone 上，一切就搞定了。效果立竿见影。我打开的每个应用在加载时都没有了往常铺天盖地的广告。一些广告位显示为灰色的占位符，原本那里应该是广告加载的地方。
Calderolla told me this week that Filtr is the first app so far to utilize the URL filters feature; though, that may be in part because it was a “nightmare” to get it to work, some of which she described in a May blog post. Calderolla said that Apple’s documentation on the URL feature was sparse, requiring her to do much of the work to understand how to implement and use the feature.
Calderolla 本周告诉我，Filtr 是目前首个利用 URL 过滤器功能的应用；不过，这在一定程度上可能是因为让它正常工作简直是一场“噩梦”，她在五月份的一篇博客文章中描述了其中的部分困难。Calderolla 表示，苹果关于 URL 功能的文档非常稀缺，这要求她必须投入大量工作来理解如何实现和使用该功能。
The URL filter feature relies on an advertising blocklist that Calderolla maintains. Calderolla explained that Filtr consults a “pre-filter” blocklist that is stored on the user’s device and is kept constantly up-to-date via automatic updates in the Wipr app. The pre-filter list determines if a website is not on the block list and, most of the time, the website loads as normal. But if the pre-filter list finds that a website might be on the block list, it will quickly confirm against the list on Calderolla’s servers. Calderolla said that these requests are routed through Apple’s servers as a proxy so that app developers do not know who is querying their blocklists. This means that you can set up Filtr once and generally never have to think about it again. (For a security or privacy product, that’s high praise.)
URL 过滤器功能依赖于 Calderolla 维护的广告拦截列表。Calderolla 解释说，Filtr 会参考一个存储在用户设备上的“预过滤”列表，该列表通过 Wipr 应用的自动更新保持实时更新。预过滤列表会判断网站是否不在拦截列表中，大多数情况下，网站会正常加载。但如果预过滤列表发现某个网站可能在拦截列表中，它会迅速与 Calderolla 服务器上的列表进行核对。Calderolla 表示，这些请求会通过苹果的服务器作为代理进行路由，因此应用开发者无法知道是谁在查询他们的拦截列表。这意味着您只需设置一次 Filtr，通常就无需再操心了。（对于安全或隐私产品来说，这是极高的评价。）
There are some caveats, but far from dealbreakers. No ad blocker is perfect, period, but minimizing exposure to the ad networks as much as possible is a major win for your privacy. Filtr also does not block ads that are served from the same network as the website you’re visiting. That means you will still see ads in the Facebook, Google, and Reddit apps, as well as any other app that serves ads from its own domain, as blocking these would block the domain entirely, rendering it likely very broken. (Lifehacker also tested and reviewed Filtr and found that using their mobile websites instead of their apps will still allow Wipr to block the ads.)
虽然有一些注意事项，但远非无法接受。没有任何广告拦截器是完美的，但尽可能减少对广告网络的暴露对您的隐私来说是一大胜利。Filtr 也不会拦截与您访问的网站来自同一网络的广告。这意味着您仍然会在 Facebook、Google 和 Reddit 应用中看到广告，以及任何其他从其自身域名提供广告的应用，因为拦截这些广告会完全封锁该域名，从而导致应用很可能无法正常运行。（Lifehacker 也测试并评论了 Filtr，发现使用它们的移动网站代替应用，Wipr 仍然可以拦截广告。）
Wipr is a universal app that costs $5 in the Apple App Store and works across all of your Apple devices. Filtr costs an additional $5 each year, or $25 for a one-time lifetime payment, via in-app purchase.
Wipr 是一款通用应用，在苹果 App Store 售价 5 美元，适用于您所有的苹果设备。Filtr 需要每年额外支付 5 美元，或者通过应用内购买支付 25 美元获得终身使用权。