{"id":39056,"date":"2023-09-18T12:14:28","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T10:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artegic.com\/?p=39056"},"modified":"2024-01-18T13:13:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T12:13:49","slug":"ios17-update-link-tracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elaine.io\/en\/blog\/ios17-update-link-tracking\/","title":{"rendered":"IOS17 Update: What will happen to link tracking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The tracking of personal data on the internet is common worldwide and an important part of marketing measures. However, some companies collect considerably more data than is necessary. Apple now wants to decisively counter this phenomenon and will therefore introduce a new function with iOS 17 that will significantly strengthen data protection. Advertisers might not be happy about this development at first glance. We say: Keep calm! In this blog post, we show you what these changes mean for (email) marketing and how advertisers can prepare for the arrival without marketing cookies to minimise the impact on marketing strategies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How does tracking work and what exactly does link tracking mean in email marketing?<\/h3>\n

Collecting user data and activity means cash. Marketing teams and analytics companies add tracking parameters to their links to track their users’ activities on different websites. Instead of storing third-party cookies, they simply append a tracking identifier to the end of the page URL. Invoking this URL allows an analytics or advertising service to read the URL, extract the same unique parameters and link them to their backend user profile. In this way, analysis of user behaviour and enrichment of the user profile can take place.<\/p>\n

Email tracking is specifically about the click behaviour in the mailing. Link tracking is crucial for the evaluation of online campaigns, because it allows the success or failure of a newsletter campaign to be measured in retrospect. With the help of this information, subsequent campaigns can be adjusted and optimised. Before data on click behaviour can be collected, the consent of the recipients for tracking must be obtained. This is required by the General Data Protection Regulation. Once this has been done, you can find out quite specifically which links were clicked on. You insert normal links in your newsletter; your newsletter software provider takes care of the tracking automatically. You can then find out which links were clicked on by whom and how many conversions resulted. In other words, who bought what, registered or downloaded something.<\/p>\n

Apple provides more privacy with update<\/h3>\n

Apple has once again caused a stir in the marketing industry with its announcement of more “privacy while surfing”. With the update to iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and macOS Sonoma planned for September, Safari will be able to remove tracking parameters from URLs in Safari, Messages and email through the “Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection” function. Apple has demonstrated how this looks in a video. This development has significant implications for tracking and analysis of marketing activity on iOS devices.<\/p>\n

To illustrate this, Apple showed a URL before and after removing the tracking parameters as an example during the development conference. The click_ID parameter of the source URL helps advertisers track a user’s activity on different websites. Safari automatically removes this parameter to protect the privacy of the users, the rest of the URL remains intact so that you can still get to the desired website.<\/p>\n

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Tracking protection only in private mode, mail and messages<\/h3>\n

But, as always, the devil is in the details and now comes the good news for all marketing teams! According to Apple’s announcement, the extended tracking and identification protection will initially only take effect automatically in Safari’s “Private Browsing” mode, but users can also activate the function permanently for normal browsing mode or deactivate it completely if they wish. The function should also work in the Apple apps “Messages” and “Mail”. Tracking parameters will also be detected and removed when users click on shared links in one of the apps.<\/p>\n

The following functions will not be affected by iOS 17, at least at this stage:<\/strong><\/p>\n