Apple Asks 'The Trade Desk' to Test a Build That Could Restore Its Ads to Safari

An Apple engineer, John Wilander, asked Ian Meyers at The Trade Desk to test a new beta build of iOS 27.2, after informing him on October 5 that the build was released. The request was made inside WebKit's public bug tracker under number 324771.

About 15 minutes after the request, Meyers confirmed seeing changes in beta build 24B5099f, indicating that the team involved may have addressed part of the issue that caused ads to stop.

The report included the names of nine domains, including "adsrvr.org", "id5-sync.com", "rlcdn.com", and "permutive.com", which are mostly domains of companies working on user identification following the decline of reliance on traditional tracking cookies. "adsrvr.org" is the primary domain through which The Trade Desk's ads pass on the open web.

The bug remains registered as "NEW" and has not been closed, and Apple has not issued any official comment explaining the reasons for the block or acknowledging a final fix. This issue concerns publishers and agencies in the region buying inventory on the open web, as the continued block means a direct loss of visibility on Apple devices, making system build monitoring a part of daily work for marketing teams.

What do these terms mean?

WebKit: The rendering engine that Apple relies on in iPhone browsers, forcing all other browsers on the device to use it.

Bug Tracker: A public or internal platform where technical issues are recorded and their status tracked until closure, with its number used as a reference in technical discussions.

Beta Build: A preliminary version of an operating system or application distributed to a limited group for testing before general release, and its behavior may change prior to the final release.

Post-cookie Identity: Alternative methods that identify the user without relying on traditional tracking cookies, after browsers restricted these cookies.