Tapping “Ask App Not to Track” stops that app from getting your iPhone’s advertising identifier and from using other identifiers, like your email address, to follow you across other companies’ apps and websites for advertising. It doesn’t turn off ads, and it doesn’t stop the app from collecting data about what you do inside the app itself. For almost everyone, tapping it costs nothing: you’ll see the same number of ads, just less targeted ones.
It’s worth understanding exactly where the line sits, especially with AI apps, where what matters most is often what happens to your conversations.
What does “tracking” mean on iPhone? #
Apple’s definition is specific. According to Apple’s support page on App Tracking Transparency, tracking is when information that identifies you or your device, collected from an app, “is linked with information that identifies you or your device collected on apps, websites and other locations owned by third parties for the purposes of targeted advertising or advertising measurement, or when the information collected is shared with data brokers.”
In plain terms: tracking is connecting what you do in one app with what you do elsewhere, to build an advertising profile or to sell to data brokers.
What changes when you tap Ask App Not to Track? #
| Blocked when you decline | Not affected |
|---|---|
| Access to the advertising identifier (IDFA) | Ads in the app, which still appear |
| Using your email or other identifiers to track you across other companies’ apps and sites | Data the app collects about how you use it |
| Sharing your data with data brokers for tracking | What the app stores on its own servers |
| Measuring ads using your identity across apps | Contextual ads based on what’s on screen |
When you decline, Apple says the developer can’t access the system advertising identifier or use other identifying information for tracking. The identifier part is enforced by the system. The rest relies on developers following Apple’s rules, which App Store review checks but can’t see everything.
How to stop tracking requests for all apps #
If you’d rather never see the prompt again:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Privacy & Security, then Tracking.
- Turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track.
With this off, every app that asks is treated as if you tapped Ask App Not to Track.
How to change it for one app #
In the same screen (Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking), you’ll see a list of apps that have asked. Toggle each one on or off. An app shows the system prompt only once; after that, your choice lives here.
Should you ever allow tracking? #
There are a few honest reasons someone might tap Allow:
- More relevant ads. If you’d rather see ads for things you might buy, tracking helps.
- Supporting free apps. Personalized ads usually pay developers more than non-personalized ones.
And the reasons most people decline:
- Ad profiles combine data from many sources into a detailed picture of you.
- Data sold to brokers can end up with parties you’ve never heard of.
- You get nothing essential in return.
If you’re unsure, decline. You can change your mind in Settings at any time.
What about Android? #
Android doesn’t show a per-app tracking prompt. Instead, you can remove the advertising ID for all apps at once. Per Google’s documentation:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Privacy, then Ads.
- Tap Delete advertising ID and confirm.
After you delete it, apps that ask for the identifier get a string of zeros. On older Android versions, the same menu offers Opt out of Ads Personalization instead. Menu names vary a little by phone maker. Our guide to phone AI privacy settings covers other settings worth changing on Pixel and Galaxy phones.
What does tracking have to do with AI apps? #
Less than you’d think. App Tracking Transparency is about advertising across apps. It says nothing about what an AI app does with the text you type into it.
A cloud chatbot can respect your tracking choice completely and still keep every conversation on its servers, use chats to train models, or let staff review them. Those are separate questions, answered in the app’s privacy policy and its App Store privacy label. We explain how to read those labels in AI app privacy labels explained, and what the big chatbots do with chats in do AI chatbots use your chats for ads.
A concrete example: Personal LLM, a free AI chat app that runs models on your phone, asks for tracking permission on iPhone because it shows ads from Google AdMob. If you decline, the ads are simply non-personalized, and AdMob may still collect device information to serve them, as the privacy policy describes. Your conversations are a separate matter: the model runs on the phone, there’s no account, and chats and photos never leave the device. Offline, no ads load at all.
That’s the kind of distinction to look for in any AI app: what it does for ads, and separately, where your chats go.
A quick privacy check for any new app #
- Read the App Store privacy label before installing.
- Decline tracking when the prompt appears.
- Decline other permissions the app doesn’t obviously need, like location or contacts.
- For AI apps, find out where conversations are processed and whether they’re used for training.
- Test an “offline” AI app in airplane mode to see if it really works without a connection.
More steps are in how to check if an AI app is really private.
Frequently asked questions #
Does Ask App Not to Track stop ads? #
No. You’ll still see ads. They just can’t be targeted using your activity in other companies’ apps and websites.
Does Ask App Not to Track really work? #
It blocks the advertising identifier at the system level, which was the main tracking tool. Other tracking methods are forbidden by Apple’s rules, but Apple can’t technically see everything an app does, so that part depends on developers following the rules and on App Store review.
Why do I keep seeing tracking prompts? #
Each app can show the prompt once. If you see many, it’s because you have many apps. To stop them all, turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track in Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking.
Is it safe to allow tracking? #
It isn’t dangerous to your phone, but it lets companies combine your activity across apps into advertising profiles and share data with brokers. There’s rarely a benefit to you beyond more targeted ads.
Does Ask App Not to Track protect my chats with an AI app? #
No. It only covers tracking for advertising across apps. What an AI app does with your conversations depends on where the model runs and on the app’s privacy policy.