turn off advertising measurement in Apple Safari

On Apple iOS

Open Settings, select Apps, select Safari, then scroll down to Advanced and open the Advanced settings.

Turn off Privacy Preserving Ad Measurement

While you have Settings open, you might as well check two other iOS tracking features.

• In Settings, go to Privacy & Security, then Tracking, and make sure “Allow Apps to Request to Track” is turned off.

• Also in Settings under Privacy & Security, find “Apple Advertising” and make sure that “Personalized Ads” is turned off. (You will probably have to scroll down—Apple makes this one a little trickier to find.)

On Mac OS

From the Safari menu, choose Settings, then check the Privacy and Advanced tabs. (On Safari - Version 16.0 (17614.1.25.9.10, 17614) it is under Privacy. On other versions you need to look under Advanced.

Uncheck Allow privacy-preserving measurement of ad effectiveness. (You can also set advanced tracking and fingerprinting protection to in all browsing if it doesn’t break any sites you use. Some corporate web applications are not compatible with Safari privacy features, so if you use Safari for work you might need to leave this alone.)

Update: The Advanced button on the Privacy tab will take you to the Advanced tab.

why turn this off?

The deeper they hide stuff like this, the more it shows they understand that it’s not in your best interest to have it on. (This feature is even turned on by default in Private Browsing!) The Apple billboards are all about protecting you from tracking. I haven’t seen one yet that was more like Connect and share with brands you love! (please me know if you see any Apple billboards like this)

Information has value in a market. When your browser passes information about you—even in a form that is supposed to prevent individual tracking—you’re rewarding risky and problematic advertising practices along with the legit ones. Some advertising has value, but putting legit sites and malvertising on an equal basis for data collection is not helping.

For other browsers

turn off advertising features in Firefox

Google Chrome ad features checklist

(Yes, all the big web browsers have stuff like this that you need to find and turn off now.)

Related

What is Privacy Preserving Ad Measurement? - Apple Community Apple users discuss what this checkbox really does. They all probably want it off (unchecked) to get to what they’re asking for.

effective privacy tips You could do privacy tips all day—this is a short list based on what has the most effect on the surveillance business.

How to Turn Off Apple Intelligence in iOS 18 (and Why You Should)

Bonus links

New Senate bill seeks to protect artists’ and journalists’ content from AI use (ever notice how the same Internet Thought Leaders who are surprised that people don’t want ad tracking are also surprised that people don’t want their content taken for AI?)

With a Little Help, Western Bluebirds Are Nesting in Alameda Remember, we humans cut down dead trees for safety, but that is bad for birds that are cavity nesters. Would you like to do something to improve nesting habitat? Consider installing nest boxes around your home, school, or community center.