5 min read
Apple Link Tracking Protection & Attribution guide
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APPLE'S LINK TRACKING PROTECTION IN 2026: WHAT IT ACTUALLY DID TO ATTRIBUTION (AND WHAT TO DO NOW)
Short version - Apple has spent the last few years quietly stripping the tracking parameters that marketers rely on to know which ads work. It started with iOS 17 in 2023 and iOS 26 escalated it. If your tracking depends on click IDs, a growing share of your Safari and Apple traffic is now going dark but UTMs survive and there are concrete ways to keep your attribution accurate. Here's the real state of play and what to do about it.