IPhone, how to block ads that track you

Apple collects data via iOS about user habits and displays ad hoc ads, but you can disable tracking. Here's how to do it

Among the Web and electronics giants, Apple is considered one of the companies most respectful of the privacy and security of its users' data. But it's not at all: as much as Google does with Android, in fact, through the iOS operating system Apple collects tons of data.

The Cupertino company, in fact, has its own platform of personalized and targeted advertising, through which it collects data that are then aggregated into "segments", i.e. groups of users with similar characteristics to which similar advertisements are sent. According to Apple, a segment is created only if there are at least 5,000 users who meet the same criteria. That may sound like a lot, but it's very little given the total amount of Apple users worldwide: over 1.5 billion, of which no less than 200 million use an iOS device such as an iPhone. Here are some tips to limit tracking on the iPhone, both by Apple and third-party companies.

How to avoid being tracked by Apple

The first step to limit the tracking of our data by iOS, i.e. Apple, is to go to Settings > Privacy > Location > Location Services and uncheck "Apple Ads by location", i.e. all ads based on our location. An even more drastic move is to block Apple's personalized ads altogether: go to Settings > Privacy > Advertising and select "Limit data collection". Each Apple user, then, corresponds to an "Advertising ID" that can be reset periodically. To do this we must go to Settings > Privacy > Advertising and choose "Restore advertising ID". This way, basically, every time we reset the ID the data collection starts over from scratch on another ID.

How to avoid being tracked by other companies

After blocking all the ways we are tracked by Apple, we need to do the same with the other thousands of companies we come across daily when accessing websites, through Safari, or using apps. First, let's go to Settings > Safari and select "Prevent cross-site tracking" and "Block cross-site tracking". For apps, instead, we have to act on the permissions by going to Settings > Privacy and selecting each category of data that interests us (Calendars, Reminders, Microphone...). For each category we are shown the list of apps with access and, tapping on each app, we can prevent them from collecting that data.