How to block ad tracking on iOS and Android platform - Android

Have you ever noticed a pattern whereby if you open an ad (mistakenly) in an app, the next moment your screen is flooded with similar ads? One of the major culprits behind this is location tracking which may no doubt look convenient for searching places, but it also let tech giants sell you things. Location […]

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Have you ever noticed a pattern whereby if you open an ad (mistakenly) in an app, the next moment your screen is flooded with similar ads? One of the major culprits behind this is location tracking which may no doubt look convenient for searching places, but it also let tech giants sell you things.

Location tracking not just helps you navigate, but it leaves minions to track your activities as well. Targeted advertising, one of the common phenomena is used by renowned brands like Apple, Facebook, Google to earn a good chunk of revenue from mobile ads. While most of the data-sharing policies are kept hidden behind the pages of privacy policies, ‘careful web users’ still get dragged into unwanted rogue marketing pop-ups. In case you have faced such an issue, here is the following step-by-step guide that you can check.

Make changes to your phone’s location settings

To prevent the iOS or Android platform from tracking your day-to-day activities, tweak your privacy settings. To turn off location on Android device here’s what you need to do
– First up, open the Settings menu on your phone.
– Scroll down and tap the Location option
– On scrolling to the bottom you will find ‘Google Location Settings’
– Press “Location Reporting” and “Location History” and switch the slider to off
– There’s a “Delete Location History” under Location History which delete the device’s location cache

To turn off location settings on an Apple device, follow the steps below
– Open Settings on the device and head to Privacy
– Then select Location Services
– On scrolling down you will find ‘System Services’
– Turn off Significant locations and tap Clear History to wipe the ‘logged record’

To stop Google from tracking your device once and for all

– Go to Settings, and look for Accounts
– Tap on your Gmail account (if multiple accounts are added, tap on the one you want to make changes)
– After selecting ‘Google Account’ scroll down and tap Manage your data & personalisation
– Then select ‘Activity Controls’
Here you will be able to turn off the different types of data that are being saved to your Google account. To prevent ‘location markers’ from being saved turn off the ‘Web and App Activity’ toggle.

Limit ad tracking on iOS and Android

You can also limit ad tracking both on Apple and Android devices. For Android platform- Go to Settings > Google > Ads > Toggle on “Opt out of ads personalization.” For iOS users, open Settings > Privacy > Advertising > Toggle “Limit Ad Tracking” to On.

Install ad-blocking extension/use private browser

You can also use certain private browser that blocks ad, location trackers by default. You can use ad-blocking extensions as well (in case you browse on Chrome) that can effectively block the annoying ads.