Apple announced new privacy changes that will be rolled out in iOS17, which is slated for full release in September 2023. With iOS17, Apple will begin automatically removing link trackers from URLs sent through Messages and Mail, as well as from Safari Private Browsing. This new feature, also called Link Tracking Protection (LTP), could make it more difficult to use UTM codes in your emails and, more broadly, complicate reporting for campaigns run through Omeda. 

So we’re answering some of your biggest questions about LTP. How does it work and when is it being released? What is being removed from reports? What does that mean for the emails you’re sending through on Omeda?  Are there any unintended consequences to look out for? We cover all that and more below.

But first, a caveat: We’re basing our analysis on our testing of the iOS17’s Beta Version, which is subject to change to significant updates before its full release in September 2023.

iOS17’s public beta was released in early July 2023 and the full version is scheduled to be released in September. When an Apple user upgrades to iOS17, Mail will reflect the new privacy settings (including LTP) by default. 

Yes! You’ll still be able to track clicks from emails sent through Omeda, and see who clicked which email, regardless of what device they’re from.  

Based on our testing, UTM parameters do NOT appear to be stripped from emails in any circumstance. LTP will remove some ID parameters from links sent through email, but this doesn’t include UTM parameters. This is true across Apple and Google Mail, regardless of whether you’re using Omeda’s Link Tracking redirects. 

Generally, we don’t expect LTP to have a significant impact on campaign measurement through Omeda because:

• clients generally use link tracking, which redirects via a link without parameters. Therefore, our parameters will not be removed by Mail.
• Apple’s Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection is located in the Advanced Safari settings and is defaulted to Private Browsing. 

However, LTP could impact conversion tracking and known/unknown conversions via the oly_enc_id parameter in some circumstances. This will depend on the recipient’s email client and Internet browser, as well as whether you use link tracking. Use this chart to see which parameters could be included or removed in your reports: .

When an Apple user updates to iOS 17, Mail will reflect the new privacy settings by default. That means that if the oly_enc_id parameter is included in a link within an email, it will be removed. But if you have link tracking ON, that parameter is not included in the link and therefore won’t be removed by Apple Mail. 

For Safari, by default the Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection option is set to Private Browsing. In this state, the oly_enc_id parameter will not be removed from the browser URL (But if it’s clicked from an email and link tracking is off, it will already have been removed by Mail).

If Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection is manually set to All Browsing, the oly_enc_id will be removed from the browser URL.

In most cases, yes. But if Apple’s Advanced Tracking is set to All Browsing, or someone uses Private Browsing in Safari, Omeda will NOT be able to convert users from Anonymous to Known via the Email Conversion event.

Omeda can still make conversions from embedded Form Builder forms using the close.confirm javascript method, but conversion events where a user is redirected with the oly_enc_id or oly_anon_id will not be successful. 

If a client’s authentication flow is dependent on the passing of a value in the oly_enc_id parameter, this could cause login issues. To combat this, we recommend appending an additional parameter to your login redirects and using that value instead. 

Have any other questions about iOS17 and its impact on your reports? Reach out to your Client Success Manager for more information.