How To Delete Advertising ID on iPhone: Steps, Privacy Risks, and Protection Tips

The advertising ID, often referred to as the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), is exactly what the name suggests: a unique identifier assigned to your device by Apple that advertisers and app developers can use to track your activity for advertising and analytics purposes. Its role in the advertising ecosystem is straightforward, but what concerns many users is the extent of these tracking practices and their impact on overall privacy.

While the IDFA can be disabled or restricted, you may wonder what effect this has on your device, the ads you see, and your overall user experience. You may also question whether these privacy controls are enough to stop ad tracking altogether.

This guide:

• Explains how to delete the advertising ID on iPhone
• Explores IDFA roles and the potential privacy risks associated with them
• Outlines other tracking methods to be mindful of beyond IDFA

What Is the Advertising ID on iPhone?

The advertising identifier (IDFA) is an alphanumeric string unique to each Apple device. This 128-bit identifier isn’t hardware-based, meaning that it can be managed through Apple’s privacy controls. Its primary purpose is to help advertisers and app developers measure advertising effectiveness, attribute app installs, and, if permitted, personalize advertising.

By tracking factors such as browsing habits, time spent in certain apps, and the content users interact with, advertisers can build highly detailed user profiles. This method allows them to understand the types of content users are most likely to engage with and deliver advertisements tailored to specific interests.

Traditionally, one of the most common uses of the IDFA was ad attribution. It allowed advertisers and marketers to determine whether a particular advertisement resulted in a conversion, such as an app installation or other desired action. Here’s how the process worked when tracking was enabled:

1. If you interacted with an advertisement displayed in an app or browser, the advertiser could associate your actions with the device-unique identifier.
2. If you later installed the advertised app, the software development kit (SDK) of a mobile measurement partner (MMP) could read the identifier, match the IDFA to the earlier ad interaction, and attribute this installation to the corresponding advertising campaign.

The IDFA was also used for marketing purposes beyond attribution. It played an important role in behavioral segmentation (categorizing users based on their expressed interests), retargeting (re-engaging users who previously interacted with content or products), and frequency capping (limiting how many times a user sees the same ad to reduce wasted impressions).

However, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) significantly changed the trajectory of IDFA-dependent marketing.

How Apple’s App Tracking Transparency Affects IDFA

As of iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, Apple introduced the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, limiting how IDFA can be accessed, used, and shared. Under this framework, apps must request user permission before tracking their activity across other apps and websites or sharing that information with data brokers. As a result, apps cannot access the IDFA for cross-app tracking purposes unless users explicitly grant permission.

When prompted to decide whether an app can track their activity, users can choose either to Allow or Ask App Not to Track. The app's core functionality is generally unaffected by this decision—only its ability to track your activity across apps and websites for advertising and measurement purposes is restricted. In some cases, the prompt also includes a message that specifies how the collected data will be used if you allow tracking.

The ATT framework has not only made it more transparent how tracking data is collected and used, but has also given users direct control over which apps can access the IDFA and the ability to change this setting at any time.

Therefore, today’s framework allows IDFA-reliant tracking in three clearly defined scenarios:

1. If the user has granted tracking permission when prompted
2. If the app has implemented the ATT framework correctly
3. If the user’s tracking permission remains enabled in iOS settings

Why Disable IDFA on iPhone

The App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework was designed as Apple’s response to growing privacy concerns raised by users and privacy advocates. By allowing users to adjust permissions, gain greater visibility into how their data is used, and restrict cross-app tracking, Apple addressed a major privacy gap that existed before iOS 14.5.

When IDFA-based tracking is enabled, apps and advertisers can associate specific actions with the same user over time. This allows for extensive user profiling, which can resemble a detailed activity log, for example:

User X opened app Y > spent a certain amount of time engaging with content > interacted with a specific feature or advertisement > moved to app Z > completed a purchase

Aside from its use in delivering targeted ads, this mechanism raises significant privacy concerns due to the extent of user profiling it enables. In some cases, the continuous collection and analysis of user activity may feel comparable to digital surveillance.

While the trade-offs of disabling ad IDs are generally minimal and largely limited to less personalized ads, the privacy benefits can be substantial.

How To Turn Off Advertising ID on iPhone

On iPhone devices, there is no separate option to permanently turn off or delete the advertising ID, as there is on Android. Instead, access to the IDFA is managed through Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) controls, allowing users to grant or deny tracking permissions on an app-by-app basis.

As mentioned above, you can manage tracking permissions when you first open the app and receive the tracking request prompt. However, you can also review and adjust these permissions at any time through Settings:

1. Open Settings
2. Tap Privacy & Security
3. Select Tracking
4. Locate the app and turn off its tracking permission

If you prefer to disable tracking requests altogether, turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track at the top of the screen. This not only prevents new apps from requesting access to the IDFA but also automatically denies the IDFA to all apps and revokes previously granted tracking permissions.

While this setting doesn’t delete the IDFA itself, it can be considered the modern equivalent of disabling IDFA-based tracking system-wide on iPhone. When tracking permission is denied, the unique IDFA code is replaced with a string of zeros, and this is what advertisers and app developers receive when attempting to assess the identifier.

In certain situations, the Allow Apps to Request Tracking setting may be disabled by default and unavailable to users. This can occur with child accounts, Apple Accounts managed by an educational or business institution, accounts created within the previous three days, or devices using a configuration profile that restricts tracking.

How To Reset the Advertising ID on iPhone

With the release of iOS 14.5, Apple retired the Reset Advertising Identifier setting. Under the ATT framework, iPhone users can no longer manually reset the advertising ID. Instead, tracking is controlled through app-level permissions that determine whether apps can access the IDFA.

As a result, periodically resetting the IDFA is no longer an option, and the current privacy model focuses on restricting access to the existing identifier rather than generating a new one.

While some users report that disabling and re-enabling tracking permissions effectively “resets” advertising tracking, this method isn’t documented in Apple’s official documentation. Resetting the ID would require replacing the existing identifier with a newly generated one, and there is no official indication that changing tracking permissions does so.

Alternative Tracking Methods Beyond IDFA

Even when tracking is disabled through privacy settings, apps and advertisers can still rely on alternative measurement and attribution methods. While many of these approaches are designed to be more privacy-conscious than traditional IDFA-based tracking, they can still provide insights into user behavior and ad performance.

The table below outlines some of the pathways that can be used to track users’ mobile activity even when IDFA is unavailable:

Is Device Protection Enough To Preserve Your Privacy?

As advanced and effective as user-controllable tracking protections may be, they are not bulletproof. While these safeguards are a vital part of a broader privacy strategy, they can’t protect against threats that exist at the network level.

The recent China-linked affair, referred to as Salt Typhoon, which compromised sensitive user data at at least nine major U.S. carriers, highlighted the importance of carrier-level protections and the risks posed by large-scale telco breaches. Big telcos gather vast amounts of user information through their core operations, including call records, location data, and other network-related information. Over the years, carriers have repeatedly been found to mishandle, share, or expose this data, creating significant privacy and security risks.

Even with strong privacy habits and tracking controls in place, such as disabling ad IDs, device-level protections offer little defense when sensitive data is exposed through carrier compromises or large-scale data breaches. This is why switching to a privacy-first mobile carrier such as Cape, which treats data security as a foundational principle rather than an afterthought, is a critical step toward reducing your overall exposure.

Cape Makes Security the Standard: Here’s How

Cape is America’s privacy-first mobile carrier, providing premium, unlimited, and nationwide call, text, and data. Unlike other providers, our service is built from the ground up with privacy and security at its core.

Mainstream carriers track you and store your data, often without your consent. Cape takes a different path—we collect the absolute minimum amount of information to provide you with service.

Any information we do collect is retained for the minimum amount of time possible. Most carriers store call data records (CDRs) for years, sometimes indefinitely. Cape stores yours for just 24 hours, and we have a commitment to never sell your data.

Cape service includes security features that no other carrier offers:

• Minimal Data Collection: During onboarding, we don’t ask for your name, Social Security number, or address. We only collect what’s necessary to provide you with service, and we retain it for the minimum amount of time possible.
• Identifier Rotation: Every SIM card has an International Mobile Subscriber ID (IMSI), a unique identifier which your device uses to register with cellular networks. Most carriers assign a fixed IMSI that stays the same for the life of your account, making it easy for your carrier, advertisers, and bad actors to identify and track your device over time. Cape breaks that pattern by allowing subscribers to automatically rotate their IMSI every 24 hours, so you appear as a different subscriber every day, making it much more difficult for anyone to follow or track your movements.
• Secondary Numbers: Your phone number is a target for data brokers and scammers. Retailers, websites, apps—everyone is routinely asking you to share your number with them, which exposes you to a variety of risks. Many turn to VoIP numbers to use as secondary lines, which can be helpful, but cost extra, don’t work with 2FA, and aren’t encrypted. Cape provides subscribers with two free additional SMS/MMS lines that are middle-to-end encrypted. With secondary numbers, you can reserve your primary number for communicating with your close friends and family, and use the other for anything from shopping and signing up for discounts, to receiving secure OTPs.
• Disappearing Call Logs: Call and text records reveal a lot about you, from who your closest relationships are to when and where communication took place. With traditional carriers, your call and text metadata doesn’t just disappear; it’s retained, analyzed, and folded into a lasting customer profile. At Cape, we’re built to forget and delete these records after just one day.
• SIM Swap Protection: A SIM swap happens when an attacker convinces your carrier to transfer your number to their device, allowing them to receive your calls and texts, trigger password resets, and gain access to your accounts. Cape protects against SIM swaps by removing humans entirely from the loop. During sign-up, you receive a 24-word phrase that generates a private key tied to your number. This phrase is the only way to move your number to a new device or carrier. No one, not even Cape, can transfer your number without your phrase, giving you full control over your number.
• Network Lock: Traditional cellular networks were designed for interoperability, not security. Outdated and legacy network protocols like SS7 have vulnerabilities that allow attackers to hack in and track your location, intercept your calls and texts, and steal sensitive information. Cape’s Network Lock uses a proprietary signaling proxy to verify that your device’s physical location matches the network it’s trying to attach to. If anything looks suspicious, like a mismatched location, we block the connection.
• Encrypted Voicemail: Voicemails can reveal more than you think, from personal messages to authentication codes, yet most voicemail systems are outdated and unencrypted. Cape encrypts your voicemails so that only you can access them.
• Secure Global Roaming: While you’re traveling abroad, your phone connects to local telecom providers to provide you with connectivity. But not all networks are secure, and not all governments treat privacy the same. Cape routes your traffic through our U.S.-based mobile core. Our Secure Global Roaming gives you the convenience of international data roaming without exposing your identity or communications. You get up to 15GB per month of international roaming included in your plan.

These features are made possible because we’re a “Heavy” Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).

Other MVNOs (such as Mint Mobile, Cricket, etc.) simply ride on top of the mobile core, SIMs, and physical infrastructure of their underlying MNO partner. At Cape, we actually own our own mobile core and provision our own SIMs.

This gives us control over how accounts are authenticated, what data we do and don’t collect, how long we retain it for, as well as the ability to build proprietary features like Identifier Rotation. No other carrier on the market has this capability.

Reclaim Your Privacy: Switch to Cape Today

Ready to ditch traditional telcos and switch to a privacy-first mobile carrier? Visit cape.co/get-cape to sign up.

Thanks to our partnership with Proton, you can also take your privacy a step further and get Proton Unlimited or Proton VPN Plus for only $1 for the first six months.