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Disable personalized advertisements and identifier tracking

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Works with any MacWorks with any Mac running macOS/OS X on Intel or Apple Silicon.
  • macOS onlyThis script improves your privacy on macOS
  • Single actionThis page belongs to a script, containing basic changes to achieve a task.
  • Impact: Minimum

    System Functionality / Data Loss Risk: Low

    This action improves privacy with minimal impact when you run the recommended script.

  • Bash (Shell script)These changes use macOS system commands to update your settings.
  • Administrative (sudo) access requiredThis script requires privilege access to do the system changes
  • Fully reversible

    You can fully restore this action (revert back to the original behavior) using this website.

    The restore/revert methods provided here can help you fix issues.

Overview​

This script enhances your privacy by deactivating Personalized Ads and disabling the collection of identifiers related to your device. The process involves modifying certain key configurations, which prevents Apple's advertising platform from using your personal information to deliver targeted ads 1.

When Personalized Ads is enabled, your information may be used to provide ads that closely align with your interests 1. You might occasionally encounter such targeted ads in Apple News, Stocks, and the Mac App Store 2. Disabling Personalized Ads will prevent Apple from using your data for ad targeting 2. Although this does not necessarily decrease the quantity of ads you receive, it may result in the ads being less relevant to your interests 2.

The primary keys to deactivating personalized ads are:

  • allowApplePersonalizedAdvertising: If set to false, this restricts Apple's personalized advertising 3. This is applicable on macOS 12 and subsequent versions 3.
  • allowIdentifierForAdvertising: The advertisingIdentifier is a unique string assigned to each device 5. Apple uses this identifier and recommends its use in third-party applications for tasks like frequency capping, attribution, conversion events, estimating the number of unique users, detecting advertising fraud, and debugging 5. Although there is no official documentation on it, a discussion on JAMF.com corroborates its existence 6.

My tests show that disabling any of the keys mentioned above results in the "System Preferences > Apple Advertising > Personalized ads" option being deactivated in the GUI, starting from macOS Monterey.

Please note: The forceLimitAdTracking key limits ad tracking 3 4 and is found in CIS benchmarks for macOS 4. However, the official macOS documentation specifies that it is applicable only to iOS 7 and newer versions, not to macOS 3. The key does not exist on the OS by default.

Safe for General Use
All actions in this script is recommended for all users. This is recommended for all users to improve without any noticeable impact on the system functionality.
Sources
PrivacyLearn.com maintains strict sourcing standards for accuracy, integrity and up-to-date content. Our content relies on authoritative sources including vendor documentation, industry standards, and verified research. Learn more about our verification process and quality standards in our editorial standards page.

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Choose one of three ways to apply:

Download script​

Download and run the script directly
  • No app needed
  • Offline usage
  • Free
  • Open-source
Help

How to apply or restore "Disable personalized advertisements and identifier tracking" using script​

  • ≈ 3 min to complete
  • Tools: Web Browser
  • Difficulty: Medium
  • ≈ 5 instructions
  1. 1

    Download

    Download the script file by clicking on the   Apply protection  button above.
    Use   Undo protection button above to restore changes.
  2. 2

    Keep the file

    If warned by your browser, keep the file.
  3. 3

    Open

    Open the downloaded file.
  4. 4

    Exit

    Once it's done, press any key to exit the window.
  5. 5

    Restart

    Restart your computer for all changes to take effect.

Apply with privacy.sexy​

Guided, automated application with safety checks
  • Recommended for most users
  • Includes safety checks
  • Free
  • Open-source
  • Popular
  • Offline/Online usage
Open privacy.sexy
Help

How to apply or restore "Disable personalized advertisements and identifier tracking" using privacy.sexy​

  • ≈ 3 min to complete
  • Tools: privacy.sexy
  • Difficulty: Simple
  • ≈ 4 instructions
privacy.sexy is free and open-source application that lets securely apply this action easily with more advanced options.
  1. 1

    Open or download

    Open or download the desktop application
  2. 2

    Choose script

    1. Search for the script name: Disable personalized advertisements and identifier tracking
    2. Check the script by clicking on the checkbox.
  3. 3

    Run

    Click on ▶️ Run button at the bottom of the page.

    This button only appears on desktop version (recommended). On browser, use 💾 Save button.

Run commands​

Copy and run commands manually Requires technical knowledge
Apply changes
defaults write com.apple.AdLib allowIdentifierForAdvertising -bool false
defaults write com.apple.AdLib allowApplePersonalizedAdvertising -bool false
defaults write com.apple.AdLib forceLimitAdTracking -bool true
Help

How to apply or restore "Disable personalized advertisements and identifier tracking" using commands​

  • ≈ 2 min to complete
  • Tools: Terminal app
  • Difficulty: undefined
  • ≈ 3 instructions
  1. 1

    Open terminal

    Open Terminal app.
  2. 2

    Copy code

    Copy the code:
    Copy Apply Code Copy Revert Code
  3. 3

    Paste & run

    Paste the code into Terminal and press Enter to run.

    Some changes require a system restart to take effect

Similar Guides​

Wider Goal​

The guide below includes this guide to achieve a wider goal.

See other more general settings that includes this one as one of its actions.

These plans combine multiple privacy settings, including this one, for stronger protection.

This page gives you practical advice on: configure OS to strengthen personal data privacy enforcement for macOS. As well, process to revert to the preset configura...

— Configure OS

Same Goal​

Other guides in Configure OS 

See settings that are in the same category as this guide.

Using other actions in the same category may help you achieve your goal better.

See all 8 guides

About the Creators​

These people have authored this documentation and written its scripts:

  • Avatar of undergroundwires. The creator of PrivacyLearn and privacy.sexy. Black and white portrait showing a person wearing a polka dot tie and suit jacket, reflecting the professional expertise behind the privacy protection tools.
    • Certified security professional
    • 7+ years experience securing banks
    • Open-source developer since 2005
    • EU advisor, Public Speaker, Moderator
    • Hundreds across the globe
    • Testers, reviewers, developers
    • Companies, military agencies
    • Community since 2017
About Us

Reviewed By​

This guide has undergone comprehensive auditing and peer review:

  • Expert review by undergroundwires​

    • Verified technical accuracy and editorial standards
    • Assessed system impact and user privacy risks

  • Public review by large community​

    • Privacy enthusiasts and professionals peer-reviewed
    • Millions of end-users tested across different environments

History​

We continually monitor our guides, their impact and all other privacy options. We update our guides when new information becomes available. On every update, we publicly store who made the change, what has been changed, why the change was made and when the change was made.

Review Change History Our Change Process