Safari's Developing Confidential Advertisements for Browsing, Intended to Minimize Discomfort during Online Shopping for Users.
Browse the web without the nagging feeling that you're being watched, thanks to Apple's latest plan. They're working on a privacy-focused feature for Safari called "Privacy Preserving Ad Click Attribution." This system lets marketers track successful ads without invading your privacy.
Traditionally, ad click attribution relies on cookies and tracking pixels, gathering information about your online habits and interests, from which sites you clicked on to your purchasing habits. Apple's solution is to curb this tracking. The new system saves generic ad clicks on the ad's hosting page, while advertisers can match conversions to randomized, delayed data. This delay add-on ensures they can't trace individual user activities, but still understand if their campaigns are effective.
For instance, a private ad attribution report might read, "24 to 48 hours ago, a user who previously clicked shop.example’s ad campaign 55 on search.example, converted with data 20 on shop.example."
In their blog post, Apple assured that user-identifying cookies won't be shared during tracking pixel requests. This might not thrill advertisers, as they lose real-time tracking capabilities, making targeted ads based on user demographics more challenging.
Apple's commitment to enhancing privacy isn't new. They removed their "Do Not Track" feature earlier this year, replaced it with "Intelligent Tracking Protection" at WWDC 2018, and pushed their privacy stance at this year's CES.
Going forward, this feature is available as a preview, and Apple is attempting to propose it as a web standard through the W3C Web Platform Incubator Community Group (WICG).
Key Insights:
- Ad click data is stored on the site where an ad is clicked.
- Ad attribution requests are delayed randomly between 24 to 48 hours to prevent cross-site tracking.
- Ephemeral sessions limit user tracking capabilities.
- No credentials, like cookies, are accepted for tracking.
- Users have the option to enable or disable ad click attribution.
- Apple's new system for Privacy Preserving Ad Click Attribution utilizes technology to store ad click data within the webpage itself, shunning the reliance on intrusive tech like cookies and tracking pixels.
- In the future, web advertisers will need to adapt to Apple's privacy-focused feature, as conversions will be attributed to randomized, delayed data rather than the individual user activities that are usually profiled.
- The future of online advertising may see less targeted ads based on user demographics, due to the removal of user-identifying cookies during tracking pixel requests in Apple's innovative plan.
- As the tech world progresses, Apple's latest privacy feature could potentially become a web standard, as they advocate for its adoption through the W3C Web Platform Incubator Community Group (WICG).
