The Universal Advertising Profile
Windows 10 includes a built-in framework designed to track your behavior and preferences in order to serve you targeted advertisements. Central to this system is the “Advertising ID.” Similar to the tracking identifiers used on smartphones, Windows generates a unique, anonymous ID tied to your user profile. To make this data actionable for marketers, Microsoft provides a privacy setting called “Let apps use my advertising ID,” which is enabled by default.
When this master toggle is active, any third-party application downloaded from the Microsoft Store can request and read your unique Advertising ID. The app developer (or the advertising network embedded within the app) uses this ID to track your activity across different apps over time. They build a profile of your interests based on the games you play, the utilities you use, and the content you consume, allowing them to display highly specific, targeted ads within the applications themselves. While some users prefer “relevant” ads over random ones, this entire system is essentially an OS-level tracking mechanism. To protect your privacy and stop developers from silently profiling your behavior across different apps, you should disable this global setting.
How to Revoke Advertising ID Access
You can instantly prevent all Store applications from reading your targeted tracking identifier via the Privacy settings.
- Click the Start button and select the Settings gear icon (or press
Win + I). - Click on the Privacy category.
- Look at the left-hand sidebar, ensure you are in the General section (usually at the very top under “Windows permissions”).
- In the right-hand pane, locate the top toggle switch situated immediately underneath the text Let apps use my advertising ID to make ads more interesting to you based on your app activity.
- Click the toggle switch to turn it Off.
Once disabled, Windows will reset your Advertising ID to zero for all apps. You may still see advertisements within free Store applications, but those ads will be generic and un-targeted, as the apps can no longer track your cross-app behavior.