Apple's Safari limits drive ad tech to server-side, with mixed results
Source: Digiday
Apple's third-party cookie restrictions are forcing publishers and ad networks to abandon browser-based targeting in favor of server-side solutions—moving data processing away from user devices where Apple can police it. But the shift exposes a hard limit: without persistent identifiers, even server-side approaches struggle to stitch together user behavior across sites. The promised alternative is less effective than the infrastructure it's replacing. This creates a two-tier ad market where Apple's own advertising business benefits from first-party data advantages while competitors operate with inferior targeting at scale.