Most of the personalized ads you see on free apps within the Play Store are for products and services Google believes would interest you. Google collects data from your smartphone, including your location and app usage, to ensure the delivery of relevant ads. Although sometimes convenient, the amount of data Google has access to is quite discomforting.
Google uses an advertising ID, which is a unique identifier attached to a packet of data that contains bits of your browsing habits and history. The company then uses that data to sell ad space to advertisers who have a particular group of people they wish to target. As far as specifics go, the group details can range anywhere from age to personal interests. Tired of unknowingly giving access to your sacred data? You can opt out of ad-tracking on both iOS and Android devices by following these simple steps:
iOS
- Open the Settings app
- Tap “Privacy”
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap “Advertising”
- Toggle the Limit Ad Tracking switch on
For additional protection you can reset your advertising ID. Resetting your ID removes the data that was already collected from your apps and internet usage, but this isn’t a permanent solution. The database of tracked information will simply return to zero, then new data will be collected using a new advertising ID. To reset your advertising ID follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app
- Tap “Privacy”
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap “Advertising”
- Tap “Reset Advertising Identifier”
- When prompted, tap “Reset Advertising Identifier”
Android
%0