Increasing privacy regulations and shifting consumer sentiment around how their data is used has led to significant changes in the digital world.
Brands like Apple are vying for attention in a competitive and crowded market and potentially recognize privacy as a potential differentiator, with the introduction of features like Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) and App Tracking Transparency (ATT).
These features present an opportunity to build trust, loyalty, and long-term customer relationships by aligning with consumer expectations for transparency and control.
However, ITP and ATT pose a risk for marketers by breaking traditional tracking and attribution models, making it harder to measure performance, personalize experiences, and prove ROI.
In this blog we’ll look specifically at the impact of ITP on organizations using the Adobe Experience Cloud.
- What is ITP and how has it evolved?
- The impact on Adobe Experience Cloud
- Strategic and technical implications for enterprise marketing
- Mitigation strategies for Adobe users
- Key questions for marketing and IT teams
What is ITP and how has it evolved?
Apple introduced ITP in 2017 as part of Safari’s privacy initiative to limit cross-site tracking. Since then, it has undergone several iterations, each tightening restrictions on how cookies and other tracking mechanisms operate:
ITP 2.1: Reduced client-side cookie lifespan to 7 days.
ITP 2.2: Further reduced lifespan to 24 hours for certain cookies.
ITP 2.3 and beyond: Targeted localStorage, sessionStorage, and CNAME cloaking.
Unlike third-party cookie deprecation in Chrome, ITP aggressively limits first-party cookies set via JavaScript, which many Adobe solutions rely on. This has significant implications for tracking returning visitors, attribution, and personalization.
ITP is in effect on users browsing with Safari, as well as any browser that is built on the iOS webkit.
The impact on Adobe Experience Cloud
Adobe Analytics: Inflated visitor counts
ITP disrupts the ability to persistently identify users across sessions. Visitor IDs stored in first-party cookies may expire prematurely, leading to inflated unique visitor counts and broken customer journeys.
Adobe Target: Poor personalization and A/B testing
Personalization efforts can suffer when returning users are treated as new visitors. This affects A/B testing consistency and the delivery of tailored experiences.
Adobe Audience Manager: Segmentation less reliable
Audience segmentation and activation become less reliable as user profiles fragment across sessions, especially on Safari.
Strategic and technical implications for enterprise marketing
For enterprise marketers, the consequences are far-reaching:
Attribution gaps: Shortened cookie lifespans distort multi-touch attribution models.
Customer journey blind spots: Incomplete data hinders journey orchestration and personalization.
Cross-domain tracking challenges: Brands operating across multiple domains struggle to unify user identities.
These issues are particularly acute for industries with long sales cycles or high-value customer journeys, such as finance, healthcare, and B2B tech.
Mitigation strategies for Adobe users
Adobe has introduced several tools and best practices to help mitigate ITP’s impact:
Experience Cloud ID (ECID): A persistent identifier that helps unify user profiles across Adobe solutions.
CNAME implementation: Allows Adobe to set cookies under your domain, but beware, Apple has started detecting and limiting this approach.
Server-side tracking: Moving data collection to the server can bypass some browser restrictions and improve data fidelity.
First-party data strategy: Encourage authenticated experiences and consent-based data collection to build durable identifiers.
To stay ahead of privacy changes, enterprise marketers should:
- Invest in durable IDs: Use login-based identifiers and integrate with customer data platforms (CDPs).
- Enhance Consent Management: Ensure compliance and build trust with transparent data practices.
- Explore clean rooms: Collaborate with partners in privacy-safe environments for data enrichment and activation.
- Audit your stack: Regularly review your Adobe implementation to identify gaps and opportunities.
Key questions for marketing and IT teams
- Are we accurately tracking returning Safari users?
- How are we handling attribution in high-privacy environments?
- Are we leveraging ECID and CNAME effectively?
- How are we preparing for a cookieless future?
10 reasons to use Cassie’s Identity Service: Tackling ITP
Cassie’s Identity Service helps clients retain the correct identity of returning visitors, even when browsers activate privacy settings like ITP and remove cookies. This service ensures accurate data collection and attribution, optimizing campaigns and enhancing the user experience. Find out our top ten reasons why Cassie’s Identity Service will change:
- Your reporting and attribution
- Your tracking and analysis
- User frustration with consent fatigue and poor user experience
