How to stop Instagram from tracking your data for ads

Sometimes, when you search for a product on browsers and different websites, it starts popping on your Instagram feed. Given the algorithmic affinity, it is clear that Instagram has its ways of tracking your activities.

Meta has announced a significant update to how it uses data collected from third-party websites and apps through Meta Pixel.

Under the current practice, the company used off-platform activity, including preferences added to carts and items viewed to show relevant ads.

In a June 2026 blog post, Meta announced that “it will start using this data to personalize other parts of your experience, including the content you see in your Feed and AI responses.”

This change is expected to come to the US and several other countries in July 2026.

How to stop Instagram from tracking data for ads?

However, users still possess the ability to manage privacy settings. If one chooses not to allow the use of this off-platform data for personalization, Meta will not use it to tailor your ads, feed content, or AI responses.

But, this does not stop the underlying data from being shared with Meta by third-party websites. You can follow these steps to turn-off the data tracking:

1. Open the Instagram app
2. Go to the profile picture icon in the bottom-right corner of screen
3. Tap the three-dot icon in the top-right corner of the screen
4. Click Accounts Center under Your account
5. Go to your information and permissions
6. Tap Activity from other businesses
7. Select don't allow us to use this activity to show you relevant content
8. Click confirm

Once you go through all these steps, disallowing Instagram using your activity, the same steps can also be applied to any Facebook account, provided your accounts are linked in Meta Accounts Center.