Apple privacy and security features

Apple has announced new privacy and security features that will affect iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma. One of the changes includes a feature called “Link Tracking Protection”, which is automatically activated in Mail, Messages, and the Safari browser in Private browsing mode. This feature detects tracking parameters in link URLs and automatically removes them.

What does this mean?

Typically, advertisers in affiliate CPA networks work with multiple webmasters. When a user places an order on an advertiser’s website, it’s important to know which webmaster referred the user to the site. To achieve this, data about the webmaster and the user is passed through link parameters when the user visits the advertiser’s site (more about affiliate links). A link may appear as follows:

https://www.advertiserweb-site.com/product_page.html?utm_source=admitad&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=promo23&utm_term={{publisher_id}}_{{subid}}&admitad_uid={{admitad_uid}}

In private browsing mode, the Safari browser now detects tracking parameters in link URLs and automatically removes them.

How will this impact affiliate CPA networks?

The removal of tracking parameters results in the loss of information about the CPA network that brought the user to the advertiser’s site, the webmaster who referred the user, and the user themselves.

Consequently, it will be impossible to determine which CPA network and webmaster led the customer to the advertiser’s site and allocate them rewards in case the user places an order. These new changes will not affect the effectiveness of CPA advertising for advertisers since they still acquire customers and receive orders. However, they have a negative impact on the CPA networks and the webmasters working with them.

How critical are these changes?

Currently, they are not critical. As mentioned earlier, these changes only apply to Safari’s private browsing mode. This mode, similar to Chrome’s incognito mode, is used by a small percentage of users:

• Approximately 30% are unaware of this mode.
• 20% of users enable private browsing mode, with 18% of them using it for online purchases.

Considering these statistics, as well as the fact that only 16% of Admitad users utilize iOS and macOS, and over time the share of these operating systems’ new versions will reach 80-90%, we estimate that this change may lead to data loss in tracking links in only 0.5% of cases, resulting in tracking dysfunction.

Does this mean nothing needs to be done?

Not entirely. The changes may have a more significant impact on webmasters whose users predominantly use Apple’s operating systems. At Admitad, we continue to monitor conversion changes and work to ensure that these and other changes do not affect our clients and partners.

What can CPA networks do in this situation?

If Apple continues to refine and implement the link removal mechanism and private browsing mode, CPA networks may face a more significant decrease in conversion rates. In such cases, marketers and CPA marketing networks can modify the parameter names, including dynamic changes, to make it more difficult for Apple’s algorithms to determine which parameters are intended for tracking purposes and which are not.

It’s conceivable that Apple and other browser developers may change their approach and, for example, encode the parameters instead of removing them, which would also impede the transmission of information in tracking links.

At Admitad, we are not inclined towards an endless cat-and-mouse game. Therefore, as a viable option, we are considering:

1. Server-to-server tracking tools where data about the network, webmaster, and user are transmitted to the advertiser via API requests.
2. PCM (Private Click Measurement) is Apple’s solution for tracking, but due to its limitations (in particular the 7-day attribution window and the limited number of identifiers (up to 256) that can be transferred per domain), it may not be applicable for advertising campaigns our clients.

What else can you read on this topic?

Apple announces powerful new privacy and security features 

iOS 17 automatically removes tracking parameters from links you click on

Private Click Measurement (PCM)

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10053/?time=1421