In this week’s episode of the Intego Mac Podcast, we discussed the “advertising identifier,” a unique identifier assigned to each Mac, iOS device, and Apple TV. The subject came up because the Mozilla foundation is calling on Apple to reset this identifier once a month.
The advertising identifier on an Apple device does not identify you personally, but it can be used by advertisers to create a profile about you. If it’s never reset, that profile increases in detail, allowing advertisers to target ads to you based on your Internet activity.
Mozilla’s point is that resetting this identifier prevents advertisers from developing rather detailed profiles on users, and is simple to do. It’s not a hardware identifier (such as the EMEI of your iPhone), but rather a number generated by your operating system.
However, you can manually reset this advertising identifier, and it’s a good idea to do so regularly. Here’s how.
On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Privacy > Advertising. Tap Reset Advertising Identifier.
On the Mac, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy, then scroll down until you see Advertising. Click that, then click Reset Advertising Identifier.
On the Apple TV, go to Settings > General > Privacy, and select Reset Advertising Identifier.
If you want to prevent advertisers from developing profiles about your activity—which they may later be able to link to other, personal data they have from you—think about doing this regularly. Set a calendar event to do this monthly, or more often if you prefer. It will prevent advertisers from knowing too much about you.
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iPhone X image by Rani Ramli.
