Apple can display personalized advertising in its own apps. In this tip, we explain where you can see the advertising and how to disable the personalized advertising. Apple has its own advertising platform in which your data can be used to show you advertising that is tailored to your taste and preferences.
If you prefer not to let Apple use this data to tailor the advertising to you, you can disable the personalized advertising on iPhone, iPad and Mac. This does not reduce the amount of advertising, but you ensure that Apple does not use some data to make the advertisements more appropriate.
Where can I see Apple’s personalized advertising?
The ads that come from Apple’s advertising platform only appear in Apple’s own apps. Apple currently shows advertisements from its own platform in these apps, whether personalized or not:
- App Store
- Shares
- Apple News (not available in the Netherlands and Belgium)
For example, in the App Store, you see advertisements and advertisements from apps. News items that match your preferences will appear in the Stocks app.
What data does Apple use for its own advertising?
Apple uses various types of data to tailor advertisements to your preferences:
- Device information (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 composes segments, in which like-minded people are divided into groups. You are therefore classified in a group with people with, for example, the same language setting, interests via the articles in Shares 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, including other companies. The data is also not used to track you in other apps. Apple only uses this to put you in a group with matching people. You can read more here about the privacy surrounding these advertisements here.
Turn off personalized ads from Apple
If you do not want Apple to use the above information to show you personalized advertisements, you can disable this yourself. This is how you do this:
iPhone and iPad
- Go to Settings > Privacy.
- Scroll down and tap Apple Advertising.
- Turn off the switch next to Personalized advertising.
mac
- Open System Preferences and click on Security & Privacy.
- Click Privacy.
- Scroll down to the left and click on Apple advertising
- Uncheck the Personalized ads box.
So keep in mind that the amount of ads is not affected by this. Even with the switch off, Apple uses some anonymous data to show ads. With the View info about targeted advertising button, you can see which data is used in that case.
Good to know: from iOS 15, Apple asks with a pop-up in the App Store whether you want to turn the personalized ads on or off. You can immediately make your choice from this message.
