Apple has its own advertising platform that can use your data to show you advertising that is tailored to your tastes and preferences. If you would rather not have Apple use this data to tailor advertising to you, you can turn off personalized advertising on iPhone, iPad and Mac. This will not reduce the amount of advertising, but it will ensure that Apple does not use some data to tailor advertising to you.
Where can I see Apple’s personalized advertising?
The ads that come from Apple’s advertising platform only appear in Apple’s own apps. Currently, Apple shows ads from its own platform in these apps, whether or not personalized:
- App Store
- Shares
- Apple News (not available in the Netherlands and Belgium)
For example, in the App Store you see commercials and ads from apps. In the Stocks app, news items that match your preferences appear.
What data does Apple use for its own advertising?
Apple uses several types of data to tailor advertising to your preferences:
- Device data (such as language, device type, operating system version)
- Device location (if location services is enabled)
- App Store Searches
- Articles in Stocks and Apple News
In addition, Apple creates segments, in which like-minded people are divided into groups. You are therefore placed in a group with people with, for example, the same language setting, interests via the articles in Stocks and the searches in the App Store. Apple uses various data for this:
- Account information (your name, address, age and more)
- Downloads, purchases and subscriptions
- Topics and categories of articles in Stocks and Apple News
- Interaction with previous commercials
This data is not shared with anyone, not even with other companies. The data is also not used to track you in other apps. Apple only uses this to group you with similar people. You can read more about the privacy around these ads here.
Disable personalized advertising from Apple
If you do not want Apple to use the above data to show you personalized ads, you can disable this yourself. Here’s how:
iPhone and iPad
- Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
- Scroll down and tap on Apple advertising.
- Turn off the switch for Personalized advertising.
Mac
- Open System Settings and click Security & Privacy.
- Scroll down and select Apple advertising.
- Uncheck the box next to Personalized advertising.
So keep in mind that the amount of ads is not affected by this. Even if the switch is off, Apple uses some anonymous data to show ads. With the button View info about targeted advertising you can see what data is used in that case.
Want to learn more about privacy and ads? Read our tip on how to disable ad tracking (IDFA) in apps to prevent you from being tracked between apps and websites.
