How to limit what Instagram does with your data for ads and AI
Meta offers several separate settings that let users partially limit how Instagram uses their data for ad and AI personalization, but there is no single master switch. Each data source — outside business activity, phone permissions, contact syncing and AI chats — must be managed individually.
Instagram ads can feel eerily accurate, but Meta says this isn't because it listens through phone microphones. Instead, retailers and other businesses often send Meta information about a user's visits or purchases elsewhere. Meta also collects data from activity inside the app itself, plus device and network information, location-related signals, and data from connected accounts.
Limiting activity from other businesses
Starting in July 2026, Meta began rolling out a new "Activity from other businesses" control, replacing an earlier setting and determining whether information businesses already send can be used to personalize ads, Feed content and AI responses. It can be found in Instagram's Accounts Center, though some accounts may still show the older "Activity information from ad partners" setting instead. Turning this off doesn't stop personalization based on activity generated inside Instagram itself, such as follows, posts engaged with, or searches. In the European Region, users can also choose a less-personalized ad experience, though Meta says it still uses signals like age, location and device information in that mode.
Restricting phone and account access
On iPhone, tracking can be disabled under Privacy & Security settings; on Android, it's managed through the app's permission settings. This doesn't stop data collection within the app itself — Meta can still estimate location from an IP address, for instance. Contact syncing can be turned off in Accounts Center, but already-uploaded contacts must be removed separately, a process that can take up to 90 days.
AI chat data
Since December 16, 2025, Meta has used interactions with its AI features as signals for content and ad personalization. Within Instagram AI chats, the commands /reset-ai and /reset-all-ais delete saved conversation context, but they don't opt users out of data collection or model training. Users in the EU and UK can object to their data being used for model training through Meta's Privacy Center.
