How To Block Tracking On Iphone

How to stop apps from tracking you in iOS 14.5

(Image credit: Future)

One of the newest and most notable features of iOS 14.5 — and one that's incurred the ire of Mark Zuckerberg — is called App Tracking Transparency, which prevents apps from tracking your activity on your iPhone or iPad.

Currently, an app can see what you're doing even when you're not using that specific app. For example, the Facebook app knows what products you're looking at in the Amazon app, or what stories you're reading on the web, so that when you go back to Facebook, you'll see ads related to your other activity.

In earlier versions of iOS 14, you had the option to turn off tracking for all or none of the apps installed on your iPhone or iPad; iOS 14.5 gives you more granular control, allowing you to change permissions for specific apps.

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Moreover, when you install a new app, you'll be presented with a window asking if you want that app to be able to track your activity.

iOS 14.5 ad tracking features — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

With iOS 14.5 now upon us, here's a closer look at how to adjust the app tracking settings.

How to use Apple's app tracking blocker

On an iPhone or iPad, open the Settings menu.

Apple app tracking — (Image credit: Future)

Next, open the Privacy menu.

At the top, select Tracking.

Turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track if you don't want any apps to track your activity.

If you have iOS 14.5 and Allow Apps to Request to Track turned on, you'll see a list of apps that have made such requests; here, you can manage each app individually.

You can also turn off App tracking on an Apple TV. The steps are similar: From Settings, select General > Privacy > Tracking > Turn off Allow Apps to Ask to Track.

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Michael A. Prospero is the deputy editor at Tom's Guide overseeing the home, smart home, drones, and fitness/wearables categories, as well as all buying guides and other evergreen content. When he's not testing out the latest running watch, skiing or training for a marathon, he's probably using the latest sous vide machine or some other cooking gadget.