{"id":87184,"date":"2025-02-14T06:44:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T06:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/analytics\/no-safari-14-does-not-block-google-analytics\/"},"modified":"2025-02-14T06:44:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T06:44:20","slug":"no-safari-14-does-not-block-google-analytics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=87184","title":{"rendered":"No – Safari 14 Does Not Block Google Analytics"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

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Let me start by proclaiming with clarity and sincerity:<\/p>\n

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No, Safari 14<\/strong> (or any other version of Safari) will not block Google Analytics from loading and running on a website.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the midst of Apple\u2019s yearly Worldwide Developers Conference<\/a>, the company showcased some of the privacy improvements to the upcoming version of the Safari web browser (version 14<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"What's<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In fact, the biggest revelation was the new Privacy Report<\/strong>, which is designed to elucidate how much the browser is working towards mitigating the damage caused by cross-site trackers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For better or for worse, one of the previews showed that google-analytics.com<\/code> is listed among the trackers<\/strong> that are being prevented<\/strong> on websites.<\/p>\n

Queue panic and the spread of misinformation like wildfire through the dry brush of first-party analytics.<\/p>\n

Apple Insider<\/a> was quick to report on this, going so far as to say that \u201c\u2026the browser now completely blocks Google Analytics\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Search Engine Journal<\/a> picked the story up too, saying that \u201c\u2026Apple specifically shows Google Analytics being blocked by Safari\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\"Search<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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NOTE! Search Engine Journal has added a footnote that they might have got the story wrong.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


\n X<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n The Simmer Newsletter<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

\n Subscribe to the Simmer newsletter<\/a> to get the latest news and content from Simo Ahava into your email inbox!\n <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Myth debunked<\/h2>\n

Safari does not block resource loads<\/strong>. That\u2019s not how Intelligent Tracking Prevention<\/a>(ITP) works. It\u2019s more elegant than that.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s John Wilander, the WebKit engineer in charge of ITP saying that \u201cITP has not started to block resource loads, but ITP does so much more than just block cookies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Early on, Maciek Stanasiuk<\/a> tested whether hits are actually blocked, and found the opposite.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Tom Anthony<\/a> contributed to the research.<\/p>\n

When Safari says it blocks<\/strong> or prevents<\/strong> a tracker<\/strong>, what it means is that the ITP algorithm has flagged some domain as having cross-site tracking capabilities<\/em>, and Safari has, among other things, stripped it of its capabilities to carry cookies<\/strong> in cross-site requests<\/strong>, also known as third-party cookies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

THIS is what Safari means when it\u2019s prevented a known tracker in google-analytics.com<\/code>. That domain has been flagged as a cross-site tracking domain, and Safari assigns certain protective measures to any communications to and from that domain (you can read more about them here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Just to prove the point, here\u2019s my site with google-analytics.com<\/code> AND googletagmanager.com<\/code> flagged as tracking domains, while still merrily loading the JavaScript libraries and sending the HTTP requests to their designated endpoints:<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\"Simoahava.com<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How does the Privacy Report work<\/h2>\n

Intelligent Tracking Prevention flags domains as being potential tracking domains<\/em> if it detects requests being sent to them by the browser from a sufficient number of unique domains.<\/p>\n

If your Safari browser sends a request to google-analytics.com<\/code> from domain1.com<\/code>, domain2.com<\/code>, and domain3.com<\/code>, Safari will flag google-analytics.com<\/code> as having cross-site tracking capabilities.<\/p>\n

ITP does this to hundreds upon hundreds of domains for any regular Safari user. It\u2019s been doing this since its introduction in 2017. This is how Safari slowly closes the noose around cross-site trackers.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"Privacy<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Privacy Report<\/strong> has been designed to shed light on this process. However, instead of listing ALL the domains flagged by ITP, the domains are cross-referenced against DuckDuckGo\u2019s<\/a> tracker lists. If a match is found, the domain is surfaced in the Privacy Report to showcase how ITP is blocking known<\/strong> trackers from reading your data.<\/p>\n

Not really. The fact that google-analytics.com<\/code> has its ability to leverage third-party storage neutered means nothing to how the tool is actually used.<\/p>\n

Google Analytics is a first-party analytics platform<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s downloaded from Google\u2019s servers as a JavaScript library, any identifiers are stored in first-party cookies, and any HTTP requests to the GA endpoint use these identifiers and these identifiers alone to specify the source of the tracker. No third-party storage access is being used with the requests to google-analytics.com<\/code>.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean there might not be cookies set<\/strong> on google-analytics.com<\/code>. I would imagine there are some that are used for debugging and monitoring purposes, for example. These cookies would not work on Safari or any other browser that targets google-analytics.com<\/code> as a tracking domain.<\/p>\n

Final thoughts<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m disappointed in many things right now.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m disappointed in how this bit of misinformation spread so fast, and how reputable journals took a grainy screenshot and a couple of influencer tweets and jumped to conclusions that were quoted over and over again in social media.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m disappointed that the Privacy Report has such clumsy wording. To use terms like block<\/strong>, prevent<\/strong>, and tracker<\/strong> can lead to confusion, as the aftermath of WWDC showed, unless they are clearly defined in the report itself. I know it\u2019s not the final version of the Privacy Report yet, so hopefully the copy will be clarified.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m disappointed it took the whole day to install Big Sur (macOS beta) on an external drive just to test something I already knew was true. And yes, I\u2019m disappointed I didn\u2019t have enough disk space available to install Big Sur on a proper hard disk partition.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not<\/em> disappointed in the Privacy Report or Intelligent Tracking Prevention. Both are doing an amazing job at protecting Safari users from something that can have a devastating impact<\/a> if mishandled.<\/p>\n

ITP will keep on evolving and morphing to adjust to the cross-site tracking crowd.<\/p>\n

But for now, Google Analytics users don\u2019t need to worry about Safari. Google Analytics does not require cross-site tracking capabilities, and Safari does not block its use. Naturally, it does limit<\/a> how effective it is, but that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n

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Huge thanks to folks like Maciec Stanasiuk, Tom Anthony, and Charles Farina for working against the rumor mill.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n