Apple's iOS 27 has quietly begun blocking hundreds of adtech and data firms on Safari through a remote list it controls, naming The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, ID5 and others. With Apple on 62.58% of Australian phones, Safari-based targeting and measurement just lost most of the local mobile audience. The brief covers the vendor audit Australian advertisers should run now.
The Take: Apple just turned off the plumbing under a large part of the open web's ad targeting, and it did it without an update you would notice. Its latest system quietly began blocking hundreds of adtech and data companies on Safari, using a remote list it can change at any time. With Apple on nearly two in three Australian phones, this is not a fringe browser problem. It is a measurement problem that lands on most of your mobile audience.
What changed: Apple's iOS 27 began blocking hundreds of programmatic data firms, CDPs and identity-graph operators from collecting data or serving ads on Safari, naming The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, ID5, Permutive and Audigent among those affected. The block runs off a remote list Apple's devices check regularly, so it can add a vendor overnight with no software release. Earlier moves hit a handful of players. This one hits the category.
Who pays: Apple devices are 62.58% of the Australian mobile vendor market, so any targeting, frequency capping or conversion tracking that leaned on Safari identifiers just lost the majority of local phones. The cost falls hardest on advertisers who bought addressable open-web audiences on the assumption the identifier would still be there next month.
of Australian phones are Apple devices, the audience this Safari block reshapes (Statcounter, September 2026)
The fine print: A remote block list means the rules are now Apple's to rewrite whenever it likes. Any measurement plan built on a vendor that sits on that list is one update away from going dark. Budgets pointed at third-party identity on Safari are not buying what the deck says they are buying.
For Australian operators: Audit every vendor in your measurement and targeting stack against the named list, and ask each one directly how iOS 27 changes their Safari coverage. Shift spend and measurement toward first-party data you collect with consent and server-side signals you own, because those do not sit on a list Apple controls. Treat any Safari-dependent audience as shrinking, and price it that way in your next media plan rather than discovering the gap in a quarterly report.