Turn off Apple's targeted ads in macOS

"Turn off targeted ads" can mean two very different things, and it is worth sorting them out before you start clicking. macOS has exactly one switch for Apple's targeted ads — System Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising → Personalized Ads — and the ads that follow you around the web are a separate job entirely. This guide cleans up both.

The one Apple setting that matters

All of Apple's ad targeting on macOS is controlled by a single toggle. There is no scattered set of ad switches to hunt down — just this one:

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
2. Scroll to the bottom and click Apple Advertising.
3. Turn off Personalized Ads.

That stops Apple targeting ads at you in the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks. It takes effect immediately and is identical across macOS Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia. The command-line equivalent, useful when you are setting up a fresh Mac:

# turn off Apple's targeted ads
defaults write com.apple.AdLib allowApplePersonalizedAdvertising -bool false

# undo
defaults write com.apple.AdLib allowApplePersonalizedAdvertising -bool true

Apple's ads vs. the ads in your browser

Here is the distinction that trips people up. The Apple Advertising switch has no effect on the targeted ads you see on websites — the ones that seem to know you looked at a pair of shoes yesterday. Those come from third-party ad networks tracking you across sites, and they are governed inside your browser, not in System Settings:

• In Safari, Prevent cross-site tracking is on by default and stops trackers linking your activity between sites.
• A content blocker or ad-blocking extension removes the ad slots themselves.
• Apple's Advertising switch only touches Apple's own first-party ads — nothing served by anyone else.

So a genuine "clean-up" is two moves: flip Apple's switch off above, and harden your browser separately. Neither replaces the other.

Finish the browser side

With Apple's targeting off, the ads left to clean up live in your browser. Start with blocking ads in Safari, which walks through content blockers and the built-in tracking protections that handle the web half of the problem.