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Online Privacy & Dark Web

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3 min read 5 stepsJuly 20, 2026Verified July 2026

How to Stop Apps From Tracking You on Your iPhone

Use Apple's App Tracking Transparency setting to see which apps are tracking your activity across other apps and websites, and turn it off.

At a Glance

Open the Tracking settings screen

~15s

Open Settings, tap Privacy & Security, then tap Tracking. This shows a full list of apps that have asked for tracking permission and whether it's currently on or off for each one.

Turn off tracking for individual apps

~15s

On the Tracking screen, tap the switch next to any app to turn its tracking permission off. The app will keep working normally — this only stops it from following your activity in other apps.

Turn off 'Allow Apps to Request to Track' entirely

~18s

At the top of the Tracking screen, turn off 'Allow Apps to Request to Track.' This automatically denies tracking permission to every app going forward. So you won't see the pop-up requests anymore.

Quick Tip

This is the fastest option if you'd rather not review apps one at a time.

Review your Apple Advertising settings too

~15s

Go to Settings, tap Privacy & Security, tap Apple Advertising, and turn off 'Personalized Ads' if you'd also like to limit how Apple itself uses your activity for ads in the App Store and Apple News.

Know that this doesn't block all ads

~15s

Turning off tracking reduces how targeted ads are, but you'll still see ads in free apps — they'll just be based on general information rather than your specific activity across other apps.

You Did It!

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Many free apps make money by tracking what you do in other apps and on websites, then using that information to show you targeted ads. Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature requires every app to ask your permission before it's allowed to do this. And it gives you a simple screen to review and turn off tracking for any app that already has permission.

When an app first asks 'Allow tracking?', it's specifically requesting permission to follow your activity outside of that one app. Choosing 'Ask App Not to Track' doesn't stop the app from working. It prevents it from building a profile of your behavior across other apps to sell more targeted ads.

You don't have to wait for each app to ask. There's a single screen that lists every app currently allowed to track you. So you can review and turn tracking off in bulk at any time. Source: support.apple.com/en-us/HT212025.

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