How Apple's Safari Identity Resolution Block Affects Franchise Ninja
Summary
Starting with the iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS 27 releases, Apple's Safari blocks third-party identity resolution vendors that quietly collect visitors' email addresses and turn them into tracking IDs. Franchise Ninja doesn't work that way. Our tag never reads form fields or captures emails, so the block doesn't touch it. Safari match rates haven't changed since the rollout, and we're checking them daily. We're also auditing every partner domain to confirm none of them use the method Apple is blocking.
What Apple Announced
The Practice Apple Is Blocking
Apple calls it a "post-cookie" tracking method. It works in four steps:
A third party (not the site owner) quietly collects a visitor's email address during login or newsletter signup.
The email is sent to the third party's servers.
The servers create an opaque tracking ID permanently tied to that email.
The ID is sent back to the page and used for cross-site profiling and ad targeting.
Over time, these vendors build an identity graph that can include name, address, phone, and IP. Apple notes that logging out or unsubscribing does not remove the stored ID.
How the Block Works
The block is enforced at the domain level, so vendors can't restructure their requests to get around it. The email never leaves the browser to reach those servers.
What Apple Still Allows
Apple drew a few clear lines in its post:
First-party personalization is allowed. Apple states, "First party personalization is not tracking."
Central identity resolvers count as third parties. This applies even when they handle only one company's data.
Hide My Email is recommended as an extra defense against email-based tracking.
Which Domains Are Blocked
- uidapi.com (UID2)
- adsrvr.org
- id5-sync.com
- rlcdn.com and pippio.com (LiveRamp)
- permutive.com
- ad.gt (Audigent)
The Trade Desk's adsrvr.org appears to have been restored in an iOS 27.2 beta, so this list may keep changing.
How the Industry Is Responding
Blocking started in September, about a month before Apple's post. Most ad tech vendors are moving identity resolution server-side. These are the two main efforts:
ID5 is moving more of its identity infrastructure server-side and testing with selected publishers.
IAB Tech Lab's Trusted Server Framework sends identity calls from the publisher's own domain, out of the browser's view.
It's not yet clear whether these workarounds will hold up long term.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have you seen any drop in match rates from Safari or iOS traffic?
None that we can attribute to this change. Safari has been the hardest browser to resolve for years because of Intelligent Tracking Prevention and iCloud Private Relay, which masks IP addresses for iCloud+ subscribers. Safari match rates were lower than Chrome's well before September, and that gap is what we track. We haven't seen a step change since the 27 releases rolled out.
Will Franchise Ninja's infrastructure be affected?
Not based on what Apple has described. Apple's block targets third parties that "invisibly collect your email address when you log in or sign up for a newsletter" and return a persistent ID to the page. Our tag does not read form fields or capture email addresses from your pages. Identification happens on our side. We match anonymous session signals against our identity graph, so there's no email-to-ID round trip in the browser for Safari to block.
What is Franchise Ninja doing to reduce risk?
We're doing two things:
Monitoring match rates daily, so any movement shows up within a day rather than at month end.
Auditing every third-party domain in our collection and resolution path, to confirm none of our data partners rely on browser-side email capture.
Do I need to change anything on my website?
No changes to the Franchise Ninja tag are needed. If you use other ad tech or identity vendors on your site, ask them how they're responding to the Safari block. Many are moving their matching to servers, and those approaches are still evolving.
Where can I read Apple's announcement?
Need Help?
If you have questions about Safari traffic in your account, schedule a meeting with a Franchise Ninja product specialist. They can review your match rates with you and walk through how candidates are identified.