Disable Ad Tracking on Apple Devices (2026)
Apple sells advertising too, and the profile used to aim it is built on your own device. Three separate switches, in three different places, and turning off one does nothing to the other two.
Apple markets itself on privacy and also runs an advertising business. Personalised ads in the App Store, Apple News and Stocks are targeted using a profile Apple builds from your own device activity. Turning it off takes about two minutes, but it is three separate controls in three places, and switching one off does nothing to the other two.
1. Apple's own personalised ads
iPhone and iPad: Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising → turn off Personalized Ads.
Mac: Apple menu → System Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising → deselect Personalized Ads.
On older iOS releases this pane was called simply Privacy, and on macOS before Ventura it lived in System Preferences → Security & Privacy. Both were renamed, which is why older guides send you to a menu that no longer exists.
2. Cross-app tracking by everyone else
This is the control most people actually mean, and it is not in the Apple Advertising pane at all.
iPhone and iPad: Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking → turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track.
With this off, apps cannot ask for permission to track you across other companies' apps and websites, and any app that previously had permission loses it. App Tracking Transparency governs third-party tracking. Apple Advertising governs Apple's. They are independent, and turning off one leaves the other running.
3. Location, handled proportionately
Older versions of this guide said to turn off Location Services entirely to stop location-based ads. That is a poor trade. It breaks Maps, weather, Find My, and emergency location, in exchange for closing one input among many.
Do it per app instead: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services, then work down the list. Set anything that does not need continuous location to While Using or Never, and turn off Precise Location for apps that only need a rough area. On Mac the same list is at Apple menu → System Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services.
What this does not fix
None of these three controls stop fingerprinting, and none of them affect data you have already handed over. An email address given at signup is a stronger and more durable identifier than any advertising profile, and it is not covered by any switch on this page. Treat this as closing three clean inputs, not as opting out of tracking.
Verified against Apple support documentation on 17 August 2026. Menu names vary by OS version and by manufacturer skin, so if a step does not match your device, search Settings for the bolded term rather than following the path blind.