Privacy Education Center

The advertising industry runs its own opt-out system: the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) operates the WebChoices consumer opt-out tool at optout.aboutads.info, along with a companion browser extension called Protect My Choices (PMC) that's meant to help those opt-out choices survive. It sounds like protection. It isn't the same thing as the law, and the details matter.

WebChoices works by setting an opt-out cookie in your browser. Clear your cookies — something browsers increasingly do automatically — and your opt-out choices are gone, silently, with no notification. PMC exists specifically because the DAA knows this is a problem: originally it just tried to stop those opt-out cookies from being deleted, and DAA has more recently (2024–2026) been rolling out an update to also store choices at the browser level instead of purely in cookies. That update is a real improvement on a real weakness. But it's still labeled "beta" in current extension listings, and even the newer version still depends on a first-party cookie that expires within 7 days to work at all. The fix for a cookie-dependent system is still, underneath, partly cookie-dependent.

And participation is voluntary. No law requires any company to join the DAA program or honor a WebChoices opt-out — the DAA's self-regulatory body can publish a compliance action against a member, but no court can order a company to comply, and there's no legal penalty for simply ignoring your opt-out. It also only covers DAA member ad-tech companies — interest-based advertising networks — not the people-search sites and data brokers that make up most of what's actually out there about you.

How to check permissions on Android

1. Open Settings, then tap "Apps" (or "Apps & notifications").
2. Tap "Permission manager" (or, on the app's own page, tap "Permissions").
3. Tap each permission (Location, Microphone, Contacts, Camera) to see every app that has it.
4. For any app that doesn't obviously need a permission, tap it and select "Deny" or "Ask every time."
5. For Location specifically, prefer "Only while using the app" over "Allow all the time" wherever the app offers the choice.

How to check permissions on iPhone

1. Open Settings and tap "Privacy & Security."
2. Tap each category (Location Services, Microphone, Contacts, Camera) to see every app that has access.
3. Under Location Services, tap any app and choose "While Using the App" or "Never" instead of "Always" unless it genuinely needs constant tracking.
4. Scroll to the bottom of Location Services and check "System Services" for anything you don't recognize.
5. Back in Settings, scroll down to see each individual app's own permission toggles under its name.