Marco Arment launches Peace, a $2.99 privacy-focused content blocker for iOS 9 that uses Ghostery's robust tracker database
Introducing Peace, my privacy-focused iOS 9 ad blocker — Running the Ghostery browser add-on in my Mac browsers has been illuminating:
Context & Ripple Effects
Peace arrives three days after iOS 9 shipped with native content-blocking support, turning ad blocking into a one-tap purchase for mainstream iPhone owners rather than a hobbyist browser extension. Arment's differentiator is Ghostery's tracker database, which means the value here is licensed intelligence about who is tracking you, not just CSS-hiding rules.
The launch lands in the middle of an escalating fight: blockers are topping the App Store while some publishers respond by hiding content from people using blockers. Within days Arment would pull Peace after 36 hours at the top of the paid chart, citing the unfairness of indiscriminate blocking — making this launch post the opening move of a very short war.
First-order effects
- Ghostery's tracker database becomes a commercial input to a consumer product overnight — its data now powers the top-grossing paid app on iOS, with Ghostery itself earning nothing from the $2.99 price.
- iPhone owners on iOS 9 gain system-wide, Safari-native tracker blocking for $2.99, removing the technical friction that previously limited content blocking to desktop extension users.
Second-order effects
- Publishers facing blocked ads escalate to withholding content from blocker users, pushing the dispute from ad tech into editorial policy and setting up confrontations over paywalls versus access.
- Arment's reversal and Apple's automatic refunds of every Peace purchase leave the App Store's bestseller slot vacant, inviting less scrupulous blockers to compete without his ethical constraints — a vacuum with no referee.
Third-order effects
- Tracker-database companies learn that licensing their data through third-party one-off apps captures none of the downstream value; Ghostery's own path — going open source in 2018 and later selling a $14/month Midnight bundle with VPN and monitoring — shows the durable model is subscription privacy services, not per-app deals.
- If platform vendors keep enabling native blocking, the ad-funded web splits structurally between audiences who see trackers and those who don't, forcing publishers toward direct payment models rather than implicit surveillance-based monetization.
The trend: Mobile operating systems turning ad blocking into a default-capable feature is converting privacy tooling from niche extensions into mass-market products — and pushing the tracking ecosystem itself toward subscription revenue to survive.