Safari in iOS 26 will block more tracking by default: what you need to know

With iOS 26, Apple is significantly strengthening user privacy in Safari, and it's going to impact how digital marketers and analysts track users online.

Including parameters like Google’s gclid and Meta’s fbclid, which are often used for ad attribution.

This has understandably raised concerns across the measurement and ad tech communities. However, a few key points are worth noting:

• UTM parameters (like utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign) are unlikely to be affected. They are not stripped in Private Browsing today, and early indications suggest that won't change.
• Platforms like Google and Meta have already developed fallback systems to handle Safari limitations, as similar tracking restrictions have been in place since the introduction of Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) in 2017.
• The overall impact may be minimal if Safari mobile traffic is a smaller segment of your total visitors, especially if you've already implemented server-side tracking or tag management.

• Review your current tracking setup and attribution models. You can use our Website Tracking Checker to see whether your setup is following best practices.
• Monitor how these changes affect your data once iOS 26 rolls out publicly.
• If you haven't already, consider implementing server-side tagging through Stape to ensure more accurate and resilient tracking.

We'll keep monitoring the situation and provide updates as the stable release of iOS 26 becomes available. Now is a good time to review your tracking setup to stay ahead of privacy-focused browser changes.