You should not need a computer science degree to understand who is collecting your personal data—or how to reduce it.
But privacy news is full of terms like “identity resolution” and “tracking infrastructure.” Most people stop reading.
Here is what matters: Apple is closing another door companies use to follow you online. Combined with stronger privacy laws and tools like Reklaim’s free data removal, these changes can help shrink your personal data footprint.
The idea is simple: fewer companies hold information about you, and you have more choice about who gets it.
Take it back. Join Reklaim free and request removal from 100+ broker sites.
How does online tracking work?
Imagine walking into a shopping mall.
You visit a shoe store, a pharmacy, and a travel agent. Someone follows you with a notebook, recording what you look at in every store.
Online tracking can work like that.
You see the website you chose to visit. Behind the page, other companies may collect information about your visit. When those same companies appear on other websites, they can connect the dots.
Those dots help build a profile of your interests and habits. That profile can help companies decide which ads to show you.
You may never have heard of the company holding the notebook. Yet it has information about you.
What did Safari already block?
A cookie is a small note your browser saves.
Some cookies are useful. They remember your shopping cart or keep you signed in.
Third-party cookies can let an outside company recognize your browser across different websites. Safari blocked these cookies by default in 2020.
But companies looked for another way to follow you. Your email address became one of those workarounds.
Say you enter your email to get a newsletter. A hidden tracking service can receive that address and connect it to a tracking number. That number can help link your activity across websites without needing the third-party cookie Safari blocked.
Apple says logging out or unsubscribing doesn't remove the information that service already holds.
You wanted a newsletter. You did not necessarily agree to someone building a record of your online life.
What is Apple blocking now?
Apple blocked third-party cookies. Companies found another route. Now Apple is blocking that workaround too.
Apple says Safari and WebKit, the technology underneath it, block connections to this identity-tracking infrastructure in its version 27 releases for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro.
Think of a road being closed to tracking companies. They found another road to carry your information away. Apple is now putting a barrier across that road too.
This reduces certain kinds of tracking. It does not erase existing profiles or stop every company from collecting information.
If I don’t use Safari, does this affect me?
You shouldn't assume you get the same protection.
These changes concern Safari and WebKit. Some other browsers use WebKit, so your device, browser technology, and software version matter.
If you use Chrome on a Windows computer, this announcement does not mean Apple has suddenly blocked tracking there.
But Safari represents a meaningful part of the internet. Statcounter measured it at 18.27% of worldwide browser traffic in September 2026, compared with 66.36% for Chrome.
Almost one in five browser visits.
As these protections take effect, outside companies find it harder to observe and connect with that part of the market. Their picture of what people do online gets less complete.
Which browser should I use to reduce tracking?
My advice: if reducing tracking is a priority, use Safari or Brave instead of Chrome.
Safari has built-in tracking protections. Brave blocks third-party ads and trackers by default. Neither makes you invisible, but both give you protection without requiring you to become a privacy expert.
Yet Chrome still accounts for roughly two-thirds of worldwide browser traffic.
Sigh.
Changing your browser is one practical place to start. Dealing with information companies already hold is another.
How does Reklaim help remove personal data?
The whole point of Reklaim is to give you more options around your data.
As part of the Reklaim ecosystem, we provide tools to request removal of your personal profile information from data brokers for free.
Think of it this way: your browser can help stop someone from adding new pages to the notebook. Data removal helps address the pages already written.
They work toward the same goal from different directions.
Removal requests do not guarantee every copy disappears. But you should have a way to act on the information being collected and circulated about you.
You should also be able to choose whether to share data through Reklaim, on terms you understand. Wanting privacy and choosing to share certain information can exist together. The choice should belong to you.
Why do privacy laws matter too?
Privacy laws increasingly give people rights to access, delete, or limit the use of their personal information, depending on where they live.
Those rights matter more when people can use them.
Put the pieces together: browsers that block more tracking, laws that give consumers more control, and Reklaim tools that help people request removal.
Each addresses a different part of the problem. Together, they can help reduce your online data footprint.
Does Apple still use data for advertising?
Yes. Blocking outside tracking does not mean Apple collects nothing about you.
Apple operates its own advertising business and can use information from its services for advertising, subject to its settings and rules. Digiday also reports that Apple is expanding its advertising efforts, including in Maps.
Apple has been involved in advertising since launching iAd in 2010. I think restricting outside tracking could also make its own advertising more attractive. That is a possible business benefit, rather than proof of its motive.
The privacy benefit can be real. So can the commercial advantage.
Apple should face the same questions as anyone else: what information do you have, how do you use it, and what choices do I get?
You have more options than doing nothing
One option is to carry on while companies collect, connect, and sell information about you, often with little visibility.
Another is to take the opposite approach: join Reklaim, use the free data removal tools in our ecosystem, choose a browser with stronger tracking protection, and exercise your privacy rights.
You cannot make your entire digital footprint disappear overnight. You can work toward making it smaller.
That is what Reklaim is here to help you do.
Your data has value. You deserve options.