TikTok will make personalized ads mandatory on April 15th | Engadget

TikTok will stop allowing users to avoid personalized ads. As things stand right now, the app includes an option that allows you to only see general messages from advertisers. That’s changing next month. Starting on April 15th, “your settings will change and the ads you’ll see may start to be based on what you do on TikTok,” the company says in notice spotted by The Verge.

That’s a stance that will put TikTok in line with many other social media apps, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. That said, you’ll still have the option to stop it from tracking your activity across other websites and apps and thereby using that information to further personalize the ads it shows you.

The timing of the notice likely has to do with the upcoming release of iOS 14.5. Apple will soon require all developers to ask explicitly for permission to track your device across websites and apps. The move has forced developers to adapt their advertising policies. LinkedIn, for instance, announced last month it would stop collecting device identifier data altogether.