The Tracking Prompt
Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency (ATT) to prevent applications from silently sharing your usage data with third-party data brokers. Consequently, whenever you install a new app (especially social media apps like Facebook or Instagram), you are immediately hit with a pop-up asking if you want to “Allow the app to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites.” If you are a privacy-conscious user, your answer to this question will always be “No.” Constantly declining these pop-ups for every single app is tedious. You must mandate a global rejection policy.
How to Turn Off Tracking Requests
You can permanently instruct your operating system to auto-reject all tracking requests via the Privacy settings.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap on Privacy & Security.
- Tap on Tracking near the very top of the list.
- Locate the master toggle switch labeled “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”
- Toggle this switch to the Off position.
- If you have previously granted permission to any apps, a prompt will appear; select “Ask Apps to Stop Tracking.”
A Silent Firewall
The change takes effect instantly. The iPhone will completely terminate the background daemon responsible for serving the ATT pop-up dialogue. From this moment on, whenever a newly installed application attempts to request access to your cross-site advertising identifier, the iOS kernel will intercept the request and silently auto-reject it in the background. You will never see a tracking pop-up again, and every single application is now mathematically walled off from your global advertising profile by default.