Don’t want your apps to follow you? Disable this iPhone setting

Who has access to your Personal data? Apple believes it should be just you. In recent years, the tech giant has rolled out a slew of anti-tracking tools aimed at helping you Take back control of your personal information: This includes your activity, location, and other sensitive data.

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature gives Apple users a simple choice, to allow apps to track their activity or not. If you choose to opt out, Apple will prevent the app from accessing the identifiers you Link your device to your activity on an appThey are usually shared with advertisers to create targeted ads. Unless you give an app explicit permission to track you (including apps made by Apple), it won’t be able to use your data for targeted advertising, including sharing your location data, advertising ID, or other identifiers with advertisers or third parties.

The feature was first revealed in Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2020 and It was later released to users later that year iOS 14.5. Since then, Apple has built on these efforts to increase transparency and privacy. in The new iOS 17Apple has made a change that allows users Set their default search engine when in private browsing mode, giving users the option to choose a search engine other than Google while in a private Safari tab. In a future iOS update, Apple recently previewed a feature that will make it harder for thieves to hack Access sensitive information on stolen devices.

The impact of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature has been widespread across the tech industry. Painted feature Support from privacy advocates But criticism from companies like deadwhich said the move would hurt its advertising business. Meta’s concerns have been evident across the board for social media platforms 2021 investigation from the Financial Times The feature is estimated to have cost Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube a combined $9.85 billion in lost ad sales, with most Apple users opting out of tracking.

Even if you do not initially opt out, you can change whether or not you want to allow tracking at any time. Here’s how to use App Tracking Transparency.

How to turn off app tracking on new apps

When you download and open a new app, you’ll receive a pop-up notification asking if you want to allow the app to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites. You’ll also see information about what the app will track. You can click Ask the app not to track To prevent this activity or Allows.

You can also opt out of app tracking across every app you download by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Tracking And switch Allow apps to request tracking. This means that any app that tries to ask for your permission will automatically be blocked from requesting and notified that you have requested not to be tracked. All apps (other than those you’ve given permission to track in the past) will be blocked from accessing your device information used for advertising, according to Apple.

It is important to note that this does not mean that ads will disappear. This just means that you’re more likely to see general ads, rather than an ad for that pair of shoes you clicked on once.

How to turn off app tracking on already downloaded apps

You can too Turn app tracking permissions on or off On a per application basis.

To do this, go to Settings > Privacy & security > Tracking. You should see a list of apps that have requested to track you. Tap the toggle button next to the apps you want to stop tracking you.

All app developers are required to request permission for tracking. If Apple learns that a developer is tracking users who have asked not to be tracked, they will either need to update their tracking practices or potentially face rejection from the App Store.

Apple believes privacy features like these are a differentiator for its products, compared to other tech giants like Google and Samsung. Cook said this is because the company’s business model It does not depend on selling advertisingIt can focus on privacy, which I call “A basic human right“.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that when you ask apps not to track you, what you’re saying is that you don’t want app developers to have access to your unique identifier that Apple creates specifically for advertisers — your IDFA. Denying access to your iPhone’s IDFA doesn’t necessarily mean app developers won’t track you through other means, so it’s important to be mindful of the apps you use and how you interact with them.

To learn more about security and privacy, see Best VPNs of 2024 and How to prevent Google from tracking your location.