How to Turn Off Ad Tracking on iPhone and Android

Turning off ad tracking on your phone takes about two minutes, but the settings are scattered and easy to confuse with each other. iPhone has two separate controls that people mix up constantly, and Android has one setting that works differently depending on how old your phone's software is. Below are the exact menu paths, straight from Apple's and Google's own support pages, along with a plain explanation of what each toggle actually stops — and what it doesn't.

What are the exact steps to turn off ad tracking on iPhone?

iPhone actually has two different ad-related settings, and they do different jobs. The first is App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which controls whether apps can track your activity across other companies' apps and websites. Apple describes it as letting you "choose whether an app can track your activity across other companies' apps and websites for the purposes of advertising or sharing with data brokers," according to Apple's support page on App Tracking Transparency.

To manage it: go to Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Tracking — that's the exact path Apple lists in its own instructions: "On iPhone or iPad: Go to Settings, then tap Privacy & Security, then tap Tracking." From there, you can review tracking permissions app by app, or flip the master switch off.

If you turn off the master toggle, you stop getting prompts entirely. Apple says apps that ask for permission while the setting is off are treated as though you had told them not to track, and that they can't reach your device's advertising identifier, the IDFA, according to Apple's support page on App Tracking Transparency.

One catch: Apple notes the toggle can't always be turned on in certain account- or device-management situations, such as on a managed or supervised device.

The second, separate setting is Apple's own advertising system inside the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks. This has nothing to do with third-party tracking; it's Apple showing you its own ads. To turn it off: go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising, per Apple's support page on personalized ads, and switch off Personalized Ads. Apple is upfront that this "may not decrease the number of ads you receive, but the ads may be less relevant to you." There's also a related location-based control — either turn off Location Services entirely, or set Allow Location Access to Never for the App Store or News apps specifically, as Apple explains.

As the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out, these are genuinely two different systems that people conflate: "Apple has its own targeted advertising system, separate from the third-party tracking it enables with IDFA." Turning off ATT doesn't touch Apple's own ad system, and turning off Personalized Ads doesn't touch third-party tracking. Do both if you want both covered.

How do I disable ad tracking on Android?

Android's version of the advertising identifier is sometimes called the AAID, per the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Google's official path to remove it is: Settings > Privacy > Ads > Delete Advertising ID, then confirm, according to Google's Play Console help page and Google's own privacy and terms page on advertising.

The EFF's walkthrough describes the same steps in practice: "you can open the Settings app and navigate to Privacy > Ads. Tap 'Delete advertising ID,' then tap it again on the next page to confirm." That second tap matters — it's the confirmation step, not just the first tap.

On older Android devices (version 4.4 and earlier), there's no delete option. Instead, Google's documentation says to go to Settings > Privacy > Advanced > Ads and turn on Opt out of Ads Personalization, per Google's support page.

Since late 2021, deleting the ID isn't cosmetic. Google says that "the advertising ID will be removed when a user deletes their advertising ID in Android Settings. Any attempts to access the identifier will receive a string of zeros instead of the identifier," per Google's Play Console documentation. That's different from resetting the ID, which simply swaps in a new number — Google's policy page distinguishes the two directly: deleting "doesn't assign a new one," while apps "can still show you ads, but they may not be as relevant or interesting to you," according to Google's advertising policy page.

Deleting the ID doesn't guarantee fewer ads, either. Google's own tip warns that "apps may have their own settings, which can also affect the types of ads you see," per Google's Play Console help.

If you have an iPhone, Google doesn't offer a separate Android-style setting — it defers entirely to Apple's system. Google's privacy page states plainly: "Devices with iOS use Apple's Advertising Identifier. To learn more about your choices for use of this identifier, visit the Settings app on your device," per Google's advertising policy page.

The checklist

1. On iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking and switch off the toggle for allowing apps to request tracking.
2. On iPhone, separately go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising and turn off Personalized Ads.
3. On iPhone, if you want to stop location-based App Store or News ads too, turn off Location Services or set Allow Location Access to Never for those specific apps.
4. On Android, go to Settings > Privacy > Ads, tap Delete Advertising ID, and confirm on the next screen.
5. On older Android (4.4 or earlier), go to Settings > Privacy > Advanced > Ads and turn on Opt out of Ads Personalization instead.
6. Check individual apps for their own in-app ad-personalization settings, since Google notes these can affect what ads you see even after the device-level ID is deleted.
7. If you're on an iPhone that can't turn on the tracking toggle, check whether the device is managed or the account restricted — Apple lists specific circumstances where the setting is locked.

What does turning off ad tracking actually stop?

The advertising ID — IDFA on iPhone, AAID on Android — is, per the EFF, "the key that enables most third-party tracking on mobile devices," and disabling it "will make it substantially harder for advertisers and data brokers to track and profile you, and will limit the amount of your personal information up for sale."

In practice, that means: third-party apps can no longer use that specific identifier to link your activity across different apps for ad targeting or to pass it to data brokers. On iPhone, once the ATT master toggle is off, Apple says, per its support page, that apps requesting to track can't reach the IDFA at all. On Android, deleting the ID means any app that tries to read it gets a string of zeros instead, per Google's Play Console documentation.

The ID itself — what it is and why advertisers rely on it — is covered in more depth in our advertising-ID explainer.

Will disabling my advertising ID stop all ads?

No. Google is direct about this: "when personalised ads are turned off, you may still see ads based on factors such as your general location derived from your IP address, your browser type, and your search terms," per Google's advertising policy page. That's contextual advertising — ads chosen based on what you're currently looking at or where you generally are, rather than a profile built from your ID.

Google also notes that even signed-out users can still be shown ads tied to other device identifiers, and signed-in users may be profiled through "the types of websites and apps you use," cookies, and "your Google Account and activity information across devices," according to Google's Play services ads safety page.

Browser and device fingerprinting is a separate issue entirely — it identifies you by combining signals like your device settings and configuration, rather than by reading a stored ID. The Federal Trade Commission has distinguished this fingerprinting technique from cookie- and ID-based tracking in its Big Data report, and it's not touched by deleting an advertising ID or turning off ATT. For how that works and why clearing cookies alone doesn't stop it, see our fingerprinting explainer.

There's also a structural difference between the two platforms. iPhone's ATT is opt-in — apps have to ask, and if you leave the master toggle off, they're automatically denied. Android's ad ID, by contrast, is exposed to apps by default; the EFF notes that "Android's ad ID is still exposed on an opt-out basis, and users have to go out of their way to defend their privacy on the platform." That default matters: on Android, nothing changes until you go into Settings and delete the ID yourself.