Liam Walsh
Liam is a Co-Director at Intelligency and heads up the agency's Digital Intelligence & Paid Social activity. Over the last decade, he has worked with brands from the world of sports such as Premier League clubs to entertainment such as Channel 4 and Disney.
Apple’s iOS updates often change how apps and websites can follow what people do online. Since iOS 14.5 introduced stronger privacy rules and App Tracking Transparency, advertisers have had to find new ways to measure whether their ads work. The next version, iOS 26, is now in testing, and early results show the changes may not be as strict as many expected. This matters to any business that uses online ads, because the ability to see which campaigns actually bring customers is vital for planning and budgeting.
Normal Browsing Still Passes Ad Info
Tests of the iOS 26 beta show that Google’s special link tags, called “gclid,” which help companies see which ads people click, mostly stay in place when you use Safari normally. They are only removed if you go into Safari’s advanced settings and switch on “Tracking & Fingerprint Protection” yourself. This means everyday users won’t lose this tracking by default, so advertisers can still connect clicks to sales or sign-ups under normal conditions.
Private Browsing and Apple Apps Behave Differently
When you use Safari’s private mode, the system still limits Google’s tags the same way it does today. Another big exception is Apple’s own Mail and Messages apps. If you open a link from an email or text message, those special tags are stripped out automatically, no matter what settings you have. That makes it harder for advertisers to see where a click came from when a person arrives via email or SMS.
Google’s Backup Plans for Stricter Privacy Rules
Because Apple could still tighten things up before iOS 26 officially launches, Google has built backup systems. These use things like email addresses or phone numbers, if you provide them to a business, to estimate which ads led to sales. Other methods move the tracking to servers instead of your browser. These tools help companies keep measuring their ads without following individuals as closely and show how online advertising is shifting toward privacy-friendly measurement.
Apple has been increasing privacy protections since 2017. The iOS 26 beta suggests no big surprise yet, but everyone is watching the final release to see if Apple goes further.
