WTF is Apple’s Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection?

ad attribution

This article is a WTF explainer, in which we break down media and marketing’s most confusing terms. More from the series →

Apple’s war against online tracking continues. Four years after the iPhone maker targeted link-based tracking tactics with the April 2019 update to Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature, Apple has extended its aim to its mobile browser with last month’s rollout of iOS 17.

The latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system introduces Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection, an option for iPhone owners to make it harder for companies to track them when using Safari’s Private Browsing feature.

In addition to anti-tracking tactics like obscuring the web signals that companies collect to triangulate individuals’ identities through device fingerprinting and blocking known trackers, ATFP will combat companies using query parameters in links to track individuals, as explained in the video skit below.

More in Marketing

Ad execs hope quarterly earnings reform can ease short-termism, but it’s no silver bullet

Short-term thinking can hold marketers back, but SEC changes won’t easily unpick culture of quick wins.

Marketers warm to AI, but creative challenges and legal risks still loom

Marketers are testing generative AI in campaigns more than ever — but copyright lawsuits and uncanny visuals keep some from going all in.

Pitch deck: How Google is responding to advertisers’ concerns about AI Max

Google’s first pitch deck on the AI-powered suite of ad tools left advertisers concerned. This updated deck aims to reassure them.