Does Safari Block Google Analytics?

If you've noticed that your Google Analytics data looks a little strange for Safari users, you’re not alone. The short answer is that Safari doesn't completely block Google Analytics, but its built-in privacy features can definitely interfere with how it collects data. This article will break down exactly what Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) does, how it impacts your marketing reports, and what you can do about it.

So, Does Safari Really Block Google Analytics?

No, Safari doesn’t outright block the Google Analytics script from running. Users browsing with a Safari browser will still show up in your reports. However, it aggressively limits how tracking cookies - the technology Google Analytics relies on - can function.

This is all thanks to a feature Apple calls Intelligent Tracking Prevention, or ITP. Instead of a complete wall, think of it as enforcing strict rules that make it much harder for Google Analytics to track a user over a long period of time.

The main impact is on the lifespan of cookies. Before ITP, a cookie could identify a visitor for up to two years. Now, that window has shrunk dramatically, which has major consequences for some of your most important metrics.

Understanding Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP)

ITP isn't just one single feature, it's an evolving set of privacy protections built directly into the Safari browser on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Apple's primary goal with ITP is to stop advertisers and data companies from tracking users across different websites without their consent. For example, it's designed to prevent a situation where you look at a pair of shoes on one site, only to see ads for those exact shoes following you around the internet for weeks.

Here’s a quick, non-technical breakdown of how ITP has evolved and why it affects your analytics:

• The first version targeted third-party cookies. These are cookies set by a domain other than the one you're visiting (e.g., an ad network). ITP blocked these almost entirely. This was a direct hit to ad platforms but didn't have a huge immediate impact on Google Analytics, which primarily uses first-party cookies.
• Later versions got much smarter. Apple realized that many tracking companies simply started using first-party cookies to get around the initial restrictions. In response, newer versions of ITP began to limit the lifespan of first-party cookies that were set using JavaScript on the client side (in the user's browser).

This second point is the one that really matters for Google Analytics. The main GA cookie, called _ga, is a first-party cookie set by a script that runs in the user's browser. Under Safari’s ITP rules, any cookie like this will expire in just 7 days. In some cases, if the user arrives from a link that Safari identifies as having tracking capabilities (like a click from many ad platforms), that cookie lifespan is reduced to a mere 24 hours.

This policy is the root cause of the data discrepancies you’re likely seeing.

How ITP Impacts Your Google Analytics Reports

When the _ga cookie is deleted after a week, Google Analytics loses its "memory" of that visitor. The next time that same person shows up, they look like a brand-new user. This creates a ripple effect that skews many of your reports.

1. Underreporting of Returning Visitors

This is the most direct consequence. Imagine a loyal customer who visits your site once every two weeks. With a 7-day cookie limit, every time they come back, GA will count them as a "New User."

As a result, you’ll see inflated New User numbers and artificially low Returning User numbers. This can give you a false sense of how much new traffic you're acquiring versus how well you're retaining your existing audience.

2. Inaccurate Conversion Attribution

The 7-day cookie cap can wreck your attribution models. Let’s say a potential customer clicks on one of your Facebook ads, browses your site, but doesn't buy anything. Then, ten days later, they remember your brand, type your URL directly into Safari, and make a purchase.

In a world without ITP, Google Analytics would remember the original touchpoint and attribute that sale to your Facebook campaign. But because the cookie expired after day seven, the link to that original ad click is gone. GA sees the purchase as coming from a new user who arrived via "Direct / None." This makes it incredibly difficult to accurately measure the ROI of your marketing channels and could lead you to cut the budget on campaigns that are actually working.

3. Messy Audience and Channel Performance Data

Building reliable audience segments for remarketing or analysis becomes much harder. If you try to create an audience of "users who visited more than 3 times in the last 30 days," many of your Safari users might not qualify, even if they fit the behavior, simply because their cookie history keeps getting erased.

This also makes it tough to analyze the long-term lifetime value (LTV) of customers from different channels. You can’t accurately track a user from their first interaction to becoming a loyal customer if the data thread keeps breaking.

4. Distorted User Journey Analysis

Analyzing user behavior funnels and paths over long periods is a core function of analytics. ITP disrupts this by breaking up individual user journeys. In your reports, you might see many short, single-session paths that end abruptly, giving you the mistaken impression that users are not engaging with your content over time.

Is It Just Safari? A Look at Other Browsers

While Apple and Safari have been the most aggressive in implementing these types of privacy-focused changes, they are not alone. Firefox has its own robust tracking protection called Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) that blocks many trackers by default. Even Google Chrome is moving in this direction with its plan to phase out third-party cookies via its Privacy Sandbox initiative.

The key takeaway is that the internet is fundamentally shifting towards a more private, less cookie-reliant model. Safari was just ahead of the curve. Getting a handle on these issues now isn’t just about fixing your Safari data, it’s about preparing your entire analytics strategy for the future.

What Can You Do About It? Modern Solutions for Analytics Tracking

Fortunately, you’re not helpless. The analytics industry has been developing new technologies and methods to adapt to this new reality. Here are the most effective solutions.

Option 1: Migrating to Google Analytics 4

If you're still on the outdated Universal Analytics, the single best step you can take is to fully migrate to Google Analytics 4. GA4 was built from the ground up for a world with fewer cookies. While it's still affected by ITP's browser-level restrictions, it uses a few clever techniques to mitigate the impact:

• Event-Based Model: GA4 is less reliant on sessions and more focused on the actions (events) users take.
• Google Signals: If a user is logged into their Google account and has ad personalization enabled, GA4 can use this aggregate, anonymized data to recognize them across devices without relying on browser cookies.
• Behavioral Modeling: This is GA4's killer feature. It uses machine learning to fill in the data gaps created by tracking restrictions. When GA4 can't observe a user's entire journey, it models the behavior of similar users who have consented to analytics to provide a more complete picture.

Option 2: Implement Server-Side Tagging

This is a more technical but extremely effective solution. In a standard setup, GTM and Google Analytics run in the user's browser, which means they are subject to all of ITP's rules. With server-side tagging, you set up a middleman: your own server environment.

1. The user’s browser sends data to your own server (hosted on a subdomain like analytics.yourwebsite.com).
2. Your server then receives this data and forwards it on to Google Analytics and other platforms (like Facebook CAPI).

The crucial benefit here is that your server can set the cookies. Because the cookie is set by your own server infrastructure (server-side) instead of a script running in the user’s browser (client-side), ITP treats it differently. This first-party, server-set cookie is not subject to the 7-day or 24-hour expiration rule and can last for much longer.

You can set this up using Google Tag Manager’s server-side container, but it does require more technical knowledge and involves costs for running the server.

Option 3: Be Mindful of How You Read Your Reports

Regardless of your technical solution, it's wise to adjust how you interpret your data:

• Focus on Shorter Timeframes: Week-over-week and day-over-day trends are more reliable than analyzing user behavior over multiple months.
• Segment by Browser: Create segments in your analytics to see what percentage of your audience uses Safari. This will help you understand how significant the data-skewing impact might be for your specific business.
• Embrace Blended Data: Stop relying on one platform as your single source of truth. Get comfortable looking at performance data from your ad platforms, email tool, and CRM together. The real insights often come from comparing datasets, not from obsessing over a single, flawed metric in GA.

Final Thoughts

To sum it up, Safari's privacy updates don't completely block Google Analytics, but they create significant challenges for accurately tracking returning users and attributing conversions. These changes fundamentally alter the reliability of reports, especially for companies that depend on measuring long-term user behavior. Adapting by moving to GA4 and considering advanced solutions like server-side tagging is no longer optional - it's essential for anyone who wants to maintain a clear view of their performance.

Navigating the mess of incomplete and skewed attribution data from tools like Google Analytics is a headache. Stitching together data from your individual ad platforms, Shopify sales data, and your CRM is tedious and can take hours every week. We've found that getting clear, real-time answers requires bringing everything under one roof. At Graphed, we connect directly to all your marketing and sales platforms, so you can simply ask for what you need - like, “Compare my new vs. returning Shopify customers by traffic source” - and see the answer appear on an instant dashboard. It eliminates all the manual CSV downloads and spreadsheet gymnastics so you can get insights without the headache.