How to Stop Apps From Tracking You on iPhone and Android -

Last month, I was chatting with a friend about air fryers — just talking, out loud, in my kitchen. An hour later, my Instagram feed was full of air fryer ads. It made my skin crawl, and it got me thinking about how much of my life my apps are quietly watching.

Here’s the thing most people don’t realize: your apps are tracking you right now, and most of it has nothing to do with making the app work better. It’s about building a profile of you — where you go, what you buy, what you read — and selling access to it. The good news? Both iPhone and Android now give you real controls to fight back. It takes ten minutes, and I’ll walk you through all of it.

What “Tracking” Actually Means

Before we change any settings, let’s be clear about what we’re stopping. When people say “apps are tracking me,” they usually mean a few different things:

Cross-app tracking: One app watches what you do and shares it with other apps and advertisers. This is how you look at shoes in one app and see shoe ads everywhere else.
Location tracking: Apps recording where you go, when, and how often — sometimes even when you’re not using them.
Advertising ID: A unique ID assigned to your phone that advertisers use to build a profile of your interests over time.

We’re going to tackle all three. None of this will break your apps — worst case, you’ll see slightly less relevant ads, which honestly feels like a win.

On iPhone: Turn Off App Tracking

Apple added a genuinely great feature a few years back called App Tracking Transparency. When an app wants to track you across other apps and websites, your iPhone is supposed to ask permission first. The problem? Most people just tap “Allow” without thinking, because the popup appears right when you’re trying to use the app.

Here’s how to shut it down across the board:

Open Settings on your iPhone.
Scroll down and tap Privacy & Security.
Tap Tracking near the top.
Turn off “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”

That’s it. With this one toggle off, apps can’t even ask — they’re automatically told no. If you’ve already allowed tracking for some apps, you’ll see them listed on this same screen. You can flip individual apps back to “not allowed” one by one.

A quick note on what this does and doesn’t do

Turning this off stops apps from linking your activity across other companies’ apps. It doesn’t stop, say, Facebook from tracking what you do inside Facebook. Nothing can do that except not using Facebook. But it’s still the single most effective privacy toggle on the iPhone, and it takes five seconds.

On iPhone: Lock Down Location Access

Location is the most sensitive thing your phone shares. A weather app needs your general area. It does not need your precise GPS coordinates 24/7. Yet plenty of apps quietly request exactly that.

Here’s how to audit every app’s location access:

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.
You’ll see a list of every app that’s ever asked for your location. Tap each one.
For most apps, choose “While Using the App” or “Never.” Almost nothing needs “Always.”
Turn off “Precise Location” for any app that only needs a rough idea of where you are (weather, news, shopping apps).

Be honest with yourself as you go through the list: does that game really need to know where you live? Does that coupon app need your location when you’re not even using it? When I did this on my own phone, I found eleven apps set to “Always.” Eleven! I changed every single one, and not a single app stopped working properly.

On Android: Delete Your Advertising ID

Android phones have something called an advertising ID — a unique identifier that lets advertisers recognize your device and build a profile of your interests across apps. The good news is that Google now lets you delete it entirely.

Here’s how:

Open Settings on your Android phone.
Tap Privacy (on Samsung phones, it may be under Security and privacy).
Tap Ads.
Tap “Delete advertising ID” and confirm.

Once deleted, apps see a string of zeros instead of your real ID. Advertisers can no longer build a cross-app profile tied to your device. You can do this every few months if you want to keep resetting the slate — though honestly, once is enough for most people.

What about “Opt out of Ads Personalization”?

On older Android versions, you might see an option called “Opt out of Ads Personalization” instead of the delete option. If that’s what your phone shows, turn it on — it does roughly the same job. Newer phones have the delete option, which is stronger.

On Android: Control Location Per App

Just like on iPhone, you should go through your apps’ location permissions and trim them down:

Go to Settings > Location > App location permissions (on Samsung: Settings > Location > App permissions).
Tap each app and set it to “Allow only while using the app,” “Ask every time,” or “Don’t allow.”
Turn off “Use precise location” for apps that don’t need your exact spot.
Pay special attention to anything set to “Allow all the time” — very few apps legitimately need this. Navigation and emergency apps, sure. A flashlight app? Absolutely not.

While you’re in the Location settings, check Location Services (or Location accuracy) too. Features like Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning let apps estimate your location even with GPS off. I leave Google Location Accuracy on because it makes maps work better, but Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning? Those I turned off. My maps still work fine.

Don’t Forget Google and Facebook

Here’s the part most guides skip: your phone’s settings don’t fully cover Google and Facebook, because those companies track you through your account, not just your device. If you’re signed into Google or Facebook, they can connect activity across your phone, your laptop, and anything else you’re logged into.

Two quick fixes worth doing:

Google: Go to myactivity.google.com and turn off Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History — or at least set them to auto-delete after 3 months. Then visit your Ad Settings and turn off Ad personalization.
Facebook: Go to Settings > Your Facebook Information > Off-Facebook Activity and clear your history, then turn off “Future off-Facebook activity.” This stops other apps and websites from reporting your activity back to Facebook.

These two take maybe five minutes combined, and they cut off an enormous amount of background data collection.

What This Won’t Fix (Being Honest)

I’d rather be straight with you than promise total privacy, because that’s not achievable. Here’s what these steps don’t do:

They don’t stop your internet provider from seeing which sites you visit. A VPN helps with that, if it matters to you.
They don’t stop first-party tracking — Instagram still knows what you do on Instagram.
They won’t stop that creepy “we were just talking about this” feeling entirely, because a lot of it is coincidence plus very good non-creepy prediction.

But going from “tracked by default everywhere” to “tracked much less” is a massive improvement. Taking back reasonable control is the goal.

Final Thoughts

Ten minutes — that’s all this takes to turn off cross-app tracking, trim location permissions, delete your advertising ID, and lock down your Google and Facebook settings. I redo this quick audit every few months, because apps love to re-request permissions after updates.

You won’t notice your phone working any differently. Your apps will still work. You’ll just be a little less of an open book to an industry you’ve never met.

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About Muhammad Asad

Muhammad Asad is a tech expert with deep knowledge of guides, websites, and solving technical problems. His guides on HIGGT focus on practical, step-by-step help for everyday tech problems, written so readers can follow along and fix things themselves. He covers HIGGT's security, network, and deep-tech guides, including VPN, phishing, passwords, WiFi, and Windows topics, in the same practical, step-by-step style.

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