You must have come across an ad about something you were discussing with your friend while browsing through the web, or scrolling through social media?. No matter what any Tech Giants says they all keep an eye on you via various ways, in order to track your activity and push suggested ads. Now, that we can’t really stop them easily from tracking us (unless you are using some kind of anti trackers, or by turning off all the sensors on your phone). But what we can do is to dodge these suggested ads, so as to make the overall online experience a little better.
Also, Read | Top 9 Privacy Apps to Use in 2021: Prevent Tracking, Ad Blocking, Stop Sharing Location & Data Collection
5 Ways to Get Rid of Targeted Ads
Almost every single online platform now has ads in it, nowadays we even see ads in the native UI of our smartphone, no matter which brands it is of Apple, Google, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oneplus, etc. We can get rid of them to some extent, by following these methods.
Turn Off Targeted Ads in Google Services
Google’s major source of revenue is Advertising, as it tacks down the usage pattern, and suggests ads based on our interest to the user across its different services like Youtube, Google Search, Gmail, etc.). We can’t really turn these ads off, but can get rid of targeted ads based on our interest.
- Go to your Google Account.
- On the left navigation panel, click Data & personalization.
- On the Ad personalization panel, click Go to ad settings.
- Under “How your ads are personalized,” select your personal info or interests
- To update your info, select Update. Follow the steps on the screen.
- To turn off an interest, select Turn off. Confirm by selecting Turn off.
- You can even Turn Off Ad Personalization, this will still show you ads, but it won’t be based on your interest.
Also, Read | 8 Gmail Features You Should Turn Off For Clean Inbox Experience
Get Rid of Targeted Ads in Android
Even if you turn off the Ads tracking on Google Services, Google can still keep track of the usage pattern of your phone. This is done by apps installed on your phone, they send the data about your usage pattern to Google’s Advertising ID allotted to your device. In return, you get personalized ads within apps and games. You can check out our detailed guide to reset the data of this Advertising ID or customize the personalized ads, across the apps on our phone, with a single tap.
Also, Read | Easy Way To Remove Top Picks Promotions in Gmail App and Gmail PC
Get Rid of Targeted Ads on iOS
Just like Google, Apple also maintains an Advertising ID, which helps them keep a track of your app usage, and serves in-app ads on your iPhone. You can turn off these targeted ads, on your iPhone, by following these steps:
- Go to Settings > Privacy > Apple Advertising, and turn the Toggle Off
Image: Apple - Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, and turn the Toggle Off
Image: Apple
Turn Off Targeted Ads on Instagram and Facebook
Instagram is a platform full of influencers and business profiles, and Instagram tries every single way to make sure you buy something from the platform, be it from suggested stories or suggested posts, carrying a sponsored tag. These can be really annoying, there’s a way to turn these suggested ads off by few simple steps, we have covered these steps to turn targeted ads both on Instagram and Facebook, you can check them out.
Turn Off Targeted Ads on Twitter
Another platform where we see brands or any institution targeting us with ads is Twitter, as we often come across various promoted tweets. Sometimes these promoted tweets cover our entire timeline, that we hardly find any organic tweets in our timeline. There are few ways you can get rid of these, we have detailed all these ways to get rid of these targeted Twitter tweets (ads), you can check them to improve your Twitter experience.
By following all the ways mentioned above, you can get rid of most targeted ads while using your phone, whether it is a Social media app, any app or game, or even services like Gmail or Youtube. This will make your phone usage experience a little better, as you can need not worry about seeing another ad, based on a conversation with your friend.
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