Your phone knows a lot about you. Every app you open, every website you visit and every ad you tap can be stitched together into a profile that follows you from one app to the next.
The good news is that you do not have to accept this. Both the iPhone and Android give you a real, built in way to say no to ad tracking, and it takes about five minutes.
This guide walks through it in plain terms. We explain what ad tracking actually is, then give the exact steps for iPhone and for Android, so you (or the parent you are helping) can turn it off with confidence.
How do I turn off ad tracking on my iPhone or Android phone?
You turn off ad tracking by changing one setting: on iPhone it is Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Tracking; on Android it is Settings, then Google, then Ads. Both settings tell apps to stop using your activity to build an advertising profile of you. The rest of this guide walks through each one step by step, plus how to check individual apps.
Plain talk: ad tracking
Ad tracking is when an app or website follows what you do, often across other apps too, and uses that history to decide which ads to show you.
What is ad tracking, and why does it happen?
Free apps make money mostly from ads. The more an advertiser knows about you, the more they will pay to show you an ad, because a targeted ad is more likely to make you buy something.
To make ads targeted, many apps quietly share a piece of information called an advertising ID. That ID does not include your name, but it lets advertisers connect your activity across different apps and websites into one profile: what you searched for, which apps you opened, which products you looked at.
Plain talk: advertising ID
An advertising ID is a string of letters and numbers your phone assigns to itself. Apps use it to recognize “the same phone” across different apps without knowing your name, though the profile built from it can still feel very personal.
This is not the same as your phone tracking your location on a map, or your messages being read. It is specifically about your activity being used to target ads. Turning it off does not affect your photos, contacts or texts.
How to turn off ad tracking on an iPhone
Apple’s system for this is called App Tracking Transparency. Since it launched, apps have had to ask your permission before they can track you across other apps. You can turn that permission off for every app at once, or check it app by app.
Turn off tracking for all apps at once
- Open Settings.
- Tap Privacy & Security.
- Tap Tracking.
- Turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track.
Once this is off, any app that would normally ask “Allow tracking?” is automatically treated as if you tapped Ask App Not to Track. You will stop seeing those pop up requests altogether.
Turn off tracking for just one app
Maybe you are happy to be tracked by one app but not others. You can manage this individually instead:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Privacy & Security.
- Tap Tracking.
- You will see a list of apps that have asked to track you. Turn each one off (or on) individually with its switch.
Try this
Open the Tracking list once a month and glance down it. New apps sometimes ask for permission after an update, and it only takes a few seconds to switch any of them off.
How to turn off ad tracking on an Android phone
Android handles this a little differently. Instead of a pop up for each app, there is one setting that tells every app on the phone not to use your advertising ID to build a profile.
- Open Settings.
- Tap Google.
- Tap Ads.
- Turn on Opt out of Ads Personalization.
While you are there, you can also tap Reset advertising ID, which wipes your current ID and gives the phone a fresh one, so any profile built on the old ID becomes useless to advertisers.
This tells apps not to use your advertising ID to build a profile or target you with personalized ads. A few older apps may take a little longer to catch up, but most respect it right away.
Exact menu names can shift slightly by phone brand. If you cannot find Google under Settings, try searching “Ads” in the Settings search bar, or look under Privacy for an Ads or Ad settings entry. Samsung, Pixel and other Android phones all include this control; it is just organized a little differently from one brand to the next.
What actually changes when you turn it off
| What it covers | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Cross-app profile | Apps link activity to build one profile | Apps cannot link activity across apps |
| Ad style | Ads feel personal, often follow you around | Ads become more generic |
| Ad measurement | Advertisers track results closely | Precise tracking gets much harder |
| Photos and messages | Not affected | Not affected |
Notice what does not change: you will still see ads, your apps will still work, and none of your personal files are touched. What changes is how much of your behavior gets stitched together behind the scenes.
Is it safe to turn off ad tracking?
Yes. Turning off ad tracking is completely safe, free and reversible. It is a setting built into the phone by Apple and Google themselves, not a third party app or download.
Safety tip
Be cautious of any text, email or pop up that claims your “tracking settings” or “advertising ID” need urgent attention and asks you to click a link or call a number. That is a common scam pattern, not a real notice from Apple or Google. Change tracking settings only inside the phone’s own Settings app, the way this guide describes.
If you are helping a parent or older relative do this over the phone, it can help to talk them through it in plain language rather than reading the menu names too quickly.
Say this
“We’re going to open Settings together, it’s the gray gear icon. Then we’ll tap on Privacy, and find a section called Tracking. I’ll stay on the line while you tap through it.”
If your parent uses a voice assistant and wants a quick explanation before making the change, a simple prompt can help them feel more confident about what they are agreeing to.
Type or say this
“In simple terms, what does it mean if I turn off ad tracking on my phone?”
A quick note on Safari and Chrome
The Tracking setting on iPhone and the Ads setting on Android cover apps. Your web browser is a separate piece of the picture. Safari on iPhone includes its own tracking protection built in and turned on by default, and Chrome on Android offers similar privacy controls in its own settings menu. Turning off app tracking is still worth doing on its own, even if you do not touch your browser settings today.
Putting it together
Turning off ad tracking is one of the simplest privacy changes available on a phone, and it takes only a few taps on either an iPhone or an Android phone. It will not stop every ad, and it will not make a phone anonymous online, but it does stop apps from quietly building a detailed profile of everything you do.
If you are setting this up while helping a parent with their phone more broadly, it fits naturally alongside other basic settings worth checking, like setting up a phone for an elderly parent or learning how to help a parent with their iPhone remotely so you can walk through settings like this one together without being in the same room.
It is also a good moment to review other privacy basics, such as stopping spam calls on Android or checking through the iPad settings worth changing after an update. None of these changes are complicated on their own, but together they add up to a phone that shares a lot less about you by default.
Where to go from here
If you want a calm, step by step walk through every privacy and safety setting worth changing on an iPhone, our book Your iPhone covers this and more, written in the same plain, no jargon style as this guide.
