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Apple’s latest crackdown on identity resolution has accelerated efforts among publishers and ad tech companies to move advertising infrastructure beyond the browser, although questions remain over whether the industry’s preferred response will provide a lasting solution.
Following weeks of uncertainty over Safari’s restrictions on domains associated with identity providers, companies including ID5 are advancing server-side integrations, while others are rallying behind IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server Framework.
The developments follow Apple’s WebKit explanation last week, which clarified its objections to identifiers derived from information such as email addresses being used to recognize individuals across websites without explicit consent.
However, the explanation came after the restrictions took effect, leaving publishers and technology providers scrambling to understand their implications. Those ad tech companies impacted included Audigent (an Experian company), ID5, LiveRamp (now a Publicis Groupe entity), Permutive, and The Trade Desk, according to live test results seen by Digiday during the week beginning Oct. 19.
Apple’s communication with the industry remains selective. Most sources contacted by Digiday described its public-facing WebKit portal as the principal channel for addressing technical questions, although separate sources, requesting anonymity to preserve commercial relationships, indicated that some back-channel discussions had taken place to help resolve outstanding issues.
Digiday’s inquiries into Apple’s motivations, beyond its publicly stated commitment to privacy, went unanswered by press time.
Meanwhile, sources in the privacy industry suggested Apple’s approach may reflect concerns about potential litigation arising from third-party tracking practices enabled by its technology.
Such an interpretation differs from suggestions that Apple is deliberately undermining independent advertising to strengthen its own growing advertising business. Apple does not separately disclose advertising revenue, although the business remains comparatively small against the more than $200 billion it generates annually through iPhone sales.
Nevertheless, critics argue that restricting addressability across independent publishers could ultimately redirect advertising spending toward environments that offer more predictable targeting and measurement.
“An open, ad-funded internet depends on consistent rules,” said Amy Jansen-Flynn, managing director of Audience360 & Publift, and executive tech council member at IAB Australia, in an emailed statement. “When one company can switch off addressability for independent publishers while walled gardens keep theirs, it doesn’t end tracking; it concentrates it,” she said, noting that such maneuvers are likely to concentrate ad spend further into the hands of outfits such as Apple, Google and Meta.
For publishers, the immediate commercial consequences remain hard to establish; according to Permutive, only a small number of its customers were affected by Apple’s recent changes, as consumer adoption remains low, though, predictably, it is expected to increase.
Digiday understands such publishers have since been placed on an interim solution while migrating to the company’s established first-party infrastructure, which has supported most customers since 2020.
Several sources indicated that relatively low adoption of iOS 27 has generated far more discussion than measurable disruption, a testament to Apple’s ability to generate buzz, or trepidation, across the industry.
Many publishers first learned about the restrictions through industry reporting or direct outreach from technology partners, and Apple’s later explanation provided greater clarity.
ID5, meanwhile, is preparing to migrate more of its identity infrastructure server-side, with Mathieu Roche, ID5 CEO, confirming the development to Digiday, explaining that the company has historically balanced ease of implementation against resilience to browser restrictions.
“Going server-side is more resilient because you’re not on the device anymore, so there’s nothing the device can do to block you,” he said.
Under the proposed approach, identity-related functions previously performed through calls to third-party domains would instead operate through publisher-controlled infrastructure.
Roche acknowledged that implementation would be harder for smaller publishers, particularly those outsourcing advertising operations, but he maintained that larger organizations could complete the technical work in days rather than months.
The company has begun working with selected publishers to test its revised integrations, according to a source familiar with the process, although broader deployment remains at an early stage.
The developments have renewed interest in IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server Framework, introduced in March 2025.
The open-source initiative proposes shifting advertising functions traditionally executed within browsers into publisher-operated infrastructure, including server-side advertising requests, Prebid Server integration, edge processing and ad stitching.
IAB Tech Lab argues that the framework can reduce publishers’ dependence on browser policies while improving control over advertising auctions, first-party data and information transmitted to technology partners.
However, the proposal drew criticism even before Apple’s latest intervention, with some questioning whether the added infrastructure would increase complexity and dependence on cloud providers. Others raised concerns about potential fingerprinting and preserving existing identity practices.
More fundamental objections concern whether moving third-party identity resolution server-side addresses Apple’s underlying privacy concerns or simply places those activities beyond its browser-level controls.
Sources familiar with publisher-side identity strategies questioned whether such an approach could perpetuate another round of cat-and-mouse between Apple and the advertising industry. Such parties worry that publishers could invest substantial resources in infrastructure built around practices Apple has already indicated it opposes, only to face further restrictions.
The distinction between publisher-controlled first-party personalization and infrastructure supporting cross-site identification is central to that argument. Trusted Server could deliver operational benefits independently of identity resolution. However, critics question whether preserving existing advertising practices should be its primary purpose, especially if it exposes publishers to further technical disruption.
Digiday raised these concerns with IAB Tech Lab leadership, including questions about privacy safeguards, implementation costs, and the possibility of future restrictions, but it declined to comment.
Supporters maintain that focusing exclusively on Safari overlooks the framework’s broader commercial implications.
Anastasia-Nikita Bansal, TeqBlaze CEO and a member of IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server Working Group, acknowledged that future restrictions remain possible. “There is no absolute guarantee that any single solution will permanently solve the challenges posed by Apple’s ecosystem updates,” she wrote in an emailed response to Digiday’s inquiries.
However, she argued that publisher-controlled infrastructure could also become increasingly important following Google’s ad tech antitrust proceedings, particularly behavioral remedies intended to provide publishers with greater flexibility over their ad-serving arrangements while retaining access to AdX demand.
Such developments could strengthen the commercial rationale for independently operated auction infrastructure, irrespective of Apple’s next intervention. TeqBlaze also maintains that investing in first-party decisioning and moving advertising operations server-side are complementary approaches, rather than competing alternatives.
Nevertheless, the costs of operating and maintaining additional infrastructure remain significant considerations, particularly for publishers without dedicated engineering resources.
The company warned against technology providers exploiting the disruption to impose additional costs on publishers seeking assistance.
Meanwhile, Roche questioned the industry’s tendency to turn disputes over browser restrictions into competition between identity providers and alternative advertising approaches. “I think we’re picking the wrong battle by trying to kind of fight against each other,” he told Digiday.
These competing positions illustrate a longstanding tension in digital advertising: whether publishers should invest in preserving existing identity-based monetization arrangements or focus resources on approaches less dependent on cross-site recognition.
For now, Trusted Server offers a potential way to reduce publishers’ operational dependence on browsers, while Apple’s latest intervention has increased the urgency to develop it.
Whether the framework ultimately provides lasting independence will depend on more than where advertising infrastructure is located. The underlying data practices and their compatibility with Apple’s privacy requirements remain unresolved.
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