You may have heard about the industry-wide shift caused by Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework and the ongoing evolution of its privacy stack.
Are you wondering how this new reality affects advertisers using Wicked Reports?
The short answer: It doesn't.
Keep reading for the long answer.
The crux of it is that there's the long-since implemented Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) that prevents brands from reliably knowing if an Apple Mail user opened an email.
It also masks the user's IP address, which makes it challenging for advertisers to link the online activity or determine user location.
The evolution of Apple’s privacy features continues to provide major challenges for analytics and tracking software.
It's time to just admit that 3rd party tracking has become obsolete.
Wicked Reports takes your customer's privacy seriously.
That is why we use first party tracking technology. No creepy internet stalking here.
So it's no surprise that Wicked’s first party data tracking is mostly unaffected by the Apple IOS changes.
- Cold traffic lead gen, Existing Lead re-optin, and Last click tracking are all still holding up in our testing.
- First click tracking will have some mild data loss - a few percentage points of attribution coverage loss is predicted.
How come Wicked is not majorly affected by the ATT framework and Apple's Privacy Stack, but platforms relying on 3rd-party data are?
- "Hide My Email" does not affect Wicked Reports' tracking because of our proprietary tracking mechanisms.
- First click tracking will have some mild data loss. While our first-click tracking has minimal impact, the real challenge for all tracking, including ours, is the long-term maintenance of accurate first-click data as IP data is masked and cookie windows shrink. This loss remains minor (single percentage points) but highlights why Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and mid-funnel clicks are paramount.
How come Wicked is not affected by UPDATES but Facebook and others are?
- Wicked uses 1st party data from the advertiser. We connect it with click data to your brand's website. Your brand is the only one who can use that data. This is not only compliant with GDPR and CCPA privacy laws, but it's just the right thing to do.
- Facebook tracks users across websites using 3rd party view and click data acquired in a multitude of ways. They use this information to determine user behavior across entire web browsing sessions across many websites and apps.
- Wicked does not participate in 3rd party data sniffing of user behavior or data off-site or off-session.
How can you still get positive advertising results in the face of challenges?
- The only sustainable marketing strategy for 2026 is to pivot your strategy to focus on the collection and ownership of first-party data instead of relying on audiences created from aggregated 3rd party data (like Facebook).
- Collecting emails at the TOF when targeting cold traffic is going to be untouched. This first party data collection will become critical to capture and use.
- Conversion integrations with Facebook, Google, and Amazon are critical.
- Demand ROI from cold traffic campaigns based on actual clicks, not modeled data.
- Diversify to channels other than Facebook. Most Wicked clients use multiple cold traffic sources such as Google Search, YouTube, Pinterest, Bing, Tiktok, and others.
Not sure how to use a 1st party data strategy?
Ready to invest in a 1st party data solution?
FAQ
What are the core components of Apple's Privacy Stack affecting advertisers in 2026?
The core components are App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which requires explicit user permission for cross-app tracking; Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), which breaks email open tracking; and Private Relay, which masks the user's IP address. These policies necessitate a shift toward 1st-party data solutions.
Why is Wicked Reports' tracking still accurate despite the Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) update?
Wicked Reports tracks customer behavior based on clicks to the advertiser's website (1st-party data) and connects that click to the resulting CRM or transaction data. Since Wicked Reports does not rely on third-party cookies or the unreliable signal of an email 'open' for conversion and LTV tracking, it remains fundamentally unaffected by MPP.
What is the key difference between Wicked Reports' 1st-party tracking and Facebook's data modeling?
Wicked Reports uses real, observable customer clicks and transaction data owned by the advertiser to provide deterministic attribution. Facebook relies heavily on modeled data and aggregated events to estimate conversions, which often leads to inaccuracies and inflated ROAS figures, especially post-ATT.
