How to Opt Out of Personalized Ads

If you’re an internet user, your behavior has likely been tracked around the web so that advertisers can sell you their products and services. That’s because targeted advertising, which is the practice of collecting your personal data to show you specific ads, is all over the internet. And it’s accomplished by various ad trackers on the websites you visit.

Ad trackers collect a variety of personal information. That includes things like your search history, web pages you’ve visited, your online shopping carts, your location, and the demographics and interests you share on social media. All of this information is used to show you ads tailored to your interests, making it much more likely that you’ll want to interact with the ad and make a purchase. While some people certainly benefit from discovering new products this way, there are others who are uncomfortable with the amount of personal information being collected about them. If you’re looking to opt out of personalized ads across the web, we’ve got you covered.

Opt Out of Personalized Ads on Google

Google is one of the biggest advertisers on the web. Opting out of personalized ads on Google means you’ll no longer see targeted Google search ads, as well as targeted ads from the 2+ million websites and apps that partner with Google to show ads.

Turning off personalized ads doesn’t mean you won’t see any of Google’s ads. They’ll simply be more generalized, based on things like the content of your search, time of day, or general location. And if you regularly clear your browser’s cache and cookies, make sure that doesn’t erase your preferences. It’s also worth noting this only works for Google’s ads, not other sites that are targeting you with non-Google trackers.

Here’s how to opt out of personalized ads on Google:

1. Sign into your Google account.
2. Go to https://adssettings.google.com/
3. Click the slider next to “Ad personalization is ON” to turn it off.
4. Confirm your choices by clicking Turn off and Got it on the next two screens.

Ad personalization is now off!

Opt Out of Personalized Ads on Facebook

The next advertising giant we’ll address is Facebook. Facebook tracks everything you do on its site and has a treasure trove of personal information about its users. And this information is used to serve you targeted ads.

You can opt out of targeted Facebook ads from your Facebook settings. Visit Facebook (while logged in), and open your Settings menu. Find “Ads” (in the sidebar navigation on the left-hand side). Select “Ad Settings” and opt out of targeted advertising by following these steps:

1. Click on Data about your activity from partners and turn that setting off. This turns off Facebook’s ability to show you ads based off of data collected while you browse the web.
2. Click on Categories used to reach you and deselect any traits that you don’t want used to target advertising to you.
3. Click on Audience based advertising to see which audiences your profile has been assigned to. You can individually turn off ads from these audiences by clicking into each one.
4. Click on Ads shown off of Facebook to turn off seeing ads on other websites that are being shown to you based on your Facebook data.

A screenshot of Facebook’s ad settings

You can also choose to see less ads around particular topics that Facebook has decided you care about. Again open your Settings menu. Find “Ads” (in the sidebar navigation on the left-hand side). Select “Ad Topics” and see less of a particular topic by clicking on it and choosing See Less. Of course, Facebook will only show you less ads related to the topic, not less ads overall.

A screenshot of some ad topics that advertisers can use to reach you.

Opt Out of Personalized Ads on Amazon and Alexa

It’s probably not news that Amazon is using your purchase data to target you with ads. And recently, it’s been reported that Amazon uses Alexa voice data for ad targeting, too.

You can opt out of targeted ads on Amazon by visiting Amazon’s Advertising preferences page. You’ll simply click Do not show me interest-based ads provided by Amazon.

You can also adjust your privacy controls specifically for Alexa on the Alexa privacy page.

Opt out of Personalized Ads on Android and iPhone

When you opt out of personalized ads on Google, that doesn’t apply to your mobile device. It’s easy to adjust your settings on your Android.

All you need to do is:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Google.
3. Tap Ads.
4. Use the slider to turn on Opt out of Ads Personalization.

And if you’re an iPhone user, you can follow these steps instead:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap Privacy.
3. Tap Apple Advertising.
4. Use the slider to turn off Personalized Ads.

Use AdBlock to Help Block Trackers

For additional help blocking trackers, you can use AdBlock. AdBlock can help block most third-party tracking to make it more difficult for advertisers to track your behavior as you browse when you subscribe to the EasyPrivacy filter list. Easy Privacy is an optional filter list that blocks most trackers on the web. (Please note that using this filter list may cause issues on sites that rely on third-party trackers, like many banking sites do. You can typically work around that by adding sites to your allowlist, though this will unblock ads on those sites, too.) For instructions on how to subscribe to EasyPrivacy, click here.

So there you have it! With this guide, we hope that you feel empowered to take back control over your personal information from advertisers. And if you’re interested in using AdBlock as a tool to block many trackers from collecting your personal information in the first place, just head to getadblock.com to install it. If you run into any questions along the way, our support team is here for you at help@getadblock.com.

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