ATT, SKAN & Privacy Sandbox

Concept

ATT (App Tracking Transparency) is Apple's permission prompt for cross-app tracking; SKAN (SKAdNetwork, evolving into AdAttributionKit) is the sparse, delayed, aggregated signal Apple returns instead of identity; the Privacy Sandbox is Google's equivalent transition for web and Android measurement.

Layman Explanation & Analogy

Mobile measurement moved from a census (count every voter) to an exit poll (survey a sample, estimate the rest). The poll predicts well but you would never recount ballots with it — likewise, SKAN and Sandbox signals are directional, never row-level truth.

Worked real-world example

After ATT, an iOS campaign's dashboard ROAS falls from 3.1x to 1.4x while blended business MER barely moves (4.4x to 4.2x). The campaign did not break; the ruler changed length — delayed, thresholded postbacks replaced exact next-day reporting.

What people get wrong & common traps

Evaluating iOS or modeled-heavy traffic on same-day platform ROAS systematically under-invests in it. Judge privacy-affected slices on 7-day+ windows and the business on MER — and never rebuild identity with fingerprinting, which violates platform policy and increasingly the law.

Related terms