This one change in iPhone setting will prevent ads from following you on the internet

With iOS 14.5, you can prevent apps from tracking you online so you should see fewer ads.

Patrick Holland / CNET

If you’ve shopped online before, you probably know the creepy feeling that comes when you click on a pair of shoes and find an ad for that pair that will follow you on every website and app you visit for the next week. A new feature on your iPhone in iOS 14.5 and later updates aim to keep your online life more private by offering the option to turn off ad tracking in the apps you use. (You can also check out all the new features in the latest version iOS 14.7, and what we expect in the coming period iOS 15 Publication.)

Continue reading: The launch of the iPhone 13 will take place on September 14th at the largest Apple event of 2021

The app tracking transparency function has been available since April iOS 14.5 To update. Unless you give an app (including the one created by Apple) express permission, it may not use your data for targeted advertising, disclose your location data to advertisers, or disclose your advertising ID or other identifiers to third parties. This change – first presented at Apple’s worldwide developer conference in June 2020 – has support from data protection officers and criticism from companies like Facebookwho say it will harm his advertising business.

The move coincides with other efforts by Apple to increase transparency and privacy, which CEO Tim Cook described in April as a “fundamental human right.” With the release of iOS 14.3 in December, users started seeing apps.Nutrition labels“to inform them of the data an app requests before downloading it from the App Store.

Here’s how to use the new app tracking transparency feature to control which apps you can track.

How to turn off app tracking for new apps

When you download and open a new app, you will receive a notification asking if you want the app to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites. You will also see information about what the app would track. You can either tap Ask the app not to track or Allow.

When you download an app, you’ll see a notification popup that lets you choose whether you want to give the app permission to track you.

Apple

You can also turn off app tracking for each app you download by going to. walk Settings> Privacy> Tracking, and switch off Allow apps to request tracking. This means that any app that tries to ask you for your permission will be automatically prevented from asking and will be informed that you have requested not to be tracked. And all apps (except the ones you’ve given permission to track in the past) will be blocked from accessing your device’s information that is used for advertising, according to Apple.

It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean ads will go away. It just means you’re seeing more general ads, not one for the pair of shoes you clicked on once.

How to turn off app tracking for apps that have already been downloaded

For apps that you have already downloaded and for which you may have set up tracking permissions, you can still enable or disable these permissions per app.

Brett Pearce / CNET

Under settings, tap an app, then tap to turn it off Allow tracking. Or go to Settings> Privacy> Tracking, then tap to enable or disable each app that appears in the list of apps that have requested permission to track your activity.

All app developers must ask permission for tracking. If Apple learns that a developer is tracking users who have asked not to be tracked, they will either need to update their app or they may be rejected by the App Store.

Apple believes privacy features like this are a differentiator for their products. Cook said that because of the company’s business model is not based on selling ads, it can focus on privacy.

For more information, see You should change your browser’s privacy settings immediately, and CNET’s tips for the best VPNs of 2021.