Post iOS 26 Changes

Lots of people complain about meta changes but Apple changes is as important as Meta.

What’s Changing in iOS 26 / Safari 26?

With iOS 26 and Safari 26 (the version that ships with it), Apple is introducing more aggressive privacy protections. Key changes affect link tracking, fingerprinting defenses, and how identifiers / cookies are handled.

1. Safari will add “noise” or randomization to browser APIs commonly used for fingerprinting, making device or browser-based fingerprinting harder.
2. Tests have shown that parameters like gclid, fbclid, dclid, msclkid, and similar are being removed, especially in Private Browsing or links from apps / email. UTMs will be preserved.

To verify this, we tested by ourselves on iOS 26.

• In normal mode, there are fbc and gclid (when searching for our existing customers on Google and clicking the ad, there's also gclid)
• In incognito mode, also known as private mode, etc., there are 【NO fbc gclid】
• Using macOS Mail app, when clicking a link with fbc and gclid from an email and opening it with Safari, there are 【NO fbc gclid】

Why this matters for marketing/analytics/ads

1. Your attribution's gonna get messed up. Since click IDs are being stripped, a lot of the usual attribution methods (like last-click tracking via URL parameters) are gonna lose accuracy or just break.
2. You need first-party and server-side data. You'll have to lean harder on first-party pixel data and server-side tracking to keep things running.
3. Get ready for aggregated/probabilistic models. There'll be more focus on aggregate attribution, incrementality testing, media mix modeling, and privacy-safe measurement.
4. Better for privacy though. For users, this is good. It limits cross-site tracking, fingerprinting, and exposure of tracking IDs.
5. Ad platforms are gonna feel it. Targeting, retargeting, and tracking tools that rely on detailed tracking will see performance drops. They'll need to adapt.
6. You'll need to test and monitor. These changes are rolling out in beta and might work differently depending on settings (browser mode, embedded webviews, etc.), so keep an eye on things and test.