Apple ITP - Measures and Actions

This article will give you insights about what actions can be taken into consideration given the current development of Apple ITP

János Moldvay avatar
Written by János Moldvay
Updated over a week ago

At 24th of march 2020 Apple released Safari 13 and version 2.3. of its intelligent tracking prevention.

What is an intelligent tracking prevention?

An Intelligent Tracking Prevention incorporates a machine-learning model (known as the Machine Learning Classifier) to assess which privately controlled domains have the ability to track users across different websites. This model is based on statistics collected by the browser.

What's different in version 2.3.? 

If anything, ITP 2.3 could be a positive for advertisers, particularly with regard to measurement and attribution. By deleting first-party cookies after 24 hours, ITP 2.2 effectively cut the measurement and attribution window from seven days to one day. ITP 2.3 re-extends the window to seven days so long as companies use non-cookie-based web storage to stash the identifier used for measurement and attribution, said Ameet Shah, vp of publisher and technology strategy at Prohaska Consulting.

What can be done to mitigate the effects of apples- or any ITP?

 The following solution is not only valid for the apple ITP but for all of the browsers ITPs. It only needs some efforts of your IT department to make it work.

Adtriba sets a first party cookia via a client side integrated script - this cookie could be potentially targeted and blocked from the ITPs we recommend to duplicate and store the Adtriba cookie serverside, hence server side stored cookies are not effected by any ITPs. To make it work please follow the steps below. 

  1. Identify the Adtriba onsite cookie (atbpdid) when a user enters the side 

  2. If the atbpdid does not exist, skip the processing in the backend

  3. If the atbpdid cookie exists, read the value (default is an UUID) for further processing

  4. Use the fetched value in order to overwrite/extend the cookie by persisting the atbpdid cookie with a new "expires at" value.

Here is a simplified example which can be used as a reference. Feel free to contact the Adtriba support for further assistance regarding a valid implementation.

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
// Get the atbpdid cookie value
let atbpdid = req.cookies['atbpdid'];

// Check if the cookie value is present
if (atbpdid) {

// Overwrite the existing cookie with a new "expire at" value
// E.g.: actual timestamp + 2 years from now
res.cookie(
'atbpdid',
atbpdid,
{
domain: 'my-project.com',
path: '/',
secure: false,
expires: new Date(Date.now() + 1000*60*60*24*365*2)
}
);
}

res.render('home');
});

By implementing this solution, no returning-user data will be lost, even if the user hasn’t visited the site in 7 or even more days. Hence the effects of the ITPs won't impact your tracking.

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