Apple Blocks Trackers in Safari: The Industry Counts Its Losses

Three circumstances heightened the alarm among advertisers and agencies:

• The blockade came suddenly, with no advance notice to the market;
• Well-known industry companies were caught in the crossfire;
• The blockade operates off a list that almost no one outside Apple can see.

Why Did the Market React So Sharply?

Online advertising has already twice undergone a radical restructuring of its business models at Apple's hands. In 2017, the company began restricting tracking in Safari, and in 2021 it delivered a second blow — one that Meta itself estimated at $10 billion in losses in a single year, a record for the industry in direct losses from a single technological decision.

This time, according to industry sources, advertising sector executives spent a week in a state of heightened anxiety even before it became possible to assess the scale of the damage. The reason is simple: Apple has twice reshaped their business, and the precedent speaks for itself.

What's Next?

The key uncertainty lies in the opacity of the mechanism itself. The list of blocked trackers is not published, and market participants cannot independently verify who exactly lost access to Safari data, and to what extent.

The industry continues to tally its early losses. The history of 2017 and 2021 shows that final figures become known only with a delay: the consequences show up in the quarterly reports of advertising platforms, not at the moment of the update itself.