With iOS 6, Apple has taken the liberty of opting you in to advertiser tracking. The tracking doesn’t track you personally, but does track how you use your device, and targets ads based on your behavior. If you don’t want to be part of this type of tracking, you can turn it off.

There are two new tracking identifiers in the UIDevice class in the new mobile OS:

• identiferForAdvertising (IDFA) is a cross app publisher identifier
• identifierForVendor (IDFV) is a publisher-specific identifier

These new identifiers are random and anonymous numbers assigned to your device. When you browse the web in Safari or use an app (basically anything you do on your device) a call is sent out for a targeted ad based on your usage history. You’re not being tacked personally, but your browsing and purchasing activity is.

In a nutshell – you’re being delivered specific ads based on the apps you use and sites you browse on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 6.

Turn Off iOS 6 Tracking

On your device go to Settings >> General  the tap About. Then scroll down the About screen and tap on Advertising.

Next turn Limit Ad Tracking to ON. If you want to read Apple’s explanation of Ad Tracking, tap Learn More. Which interestingly says that “you may still receive targeted ads.” This would apply to apps like Facebook or ads in Lite versions of games for example.

View more tips for iOS as: get Google Maps back in iOS 6, Set a Custom Vibration in iOS6 for iPhone and Insert a Photo or Video inside the Email App.

Via Groovypost