By blocking cookies, you prevent that data from being collected. Turn on “Block All Cookies.” The cookies collected by various websites can contain a great deal of information about how you use the site, what info you put into it, etc.Turn on “Prevent Cross-Site Tracking” (which means advertisers and other third-party content providers can’t track you from one site to another).Select “Safari,” and scroll down to the “Privacy & Security” section.Select your “Settings” app, tap on “Privacy,” and scroll down to and select “Apple Advertising” (it will be near the bottom of the list).Įnabling “Block All Cookies” is more secure but can also be inconvenient.You can get around this somewhat by turning off personalized and location-based ads. However, the page goes on to say that contextual data, such as info about your device, its location, your App Store searches, and what you read on Apple News could be collected.
Turn off personalized and location-based adsĪccording to Apple’s Advertising & Privacy page:Īpple’s advertising platform does not track you, meaning that it does not link user or device data collected from our apps with user or device data collected from third parties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes, and does not share user or device data with data brokers. There are some simple ways to minimize the amount of tracking that app vendors can do and the amount of data they can access.
But it’s still a good idea to take charge of your own data. Since his article was published, Apple has made some laudable changes to its privacy policies. If you use a phone, laptop, or any type of computing device (unless you’re a security expert or a high-end hacker with access to sophisticated blocking tools), you’re paying for your apps by contributing marketing and other info to the companies that supply them.Īs Fowler’s article demonstrated, iPhone users are not immune to this.
In 2019, an article in The Washington Post by Geoffrey Fowler described the author’s shock when he discovered just how many of his iPhone apps were collecting and uploading information about his usage while he slept.Īs we all know by now, data is a huge commodity these days.